Isonomia and the Origins of Philosophy
eBook - PDF

Isonomia and the Origins of Philosophy

  1. English
  2. PDF
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Isonomia and the Origins of Philosophy

About this book

In Isonomia and the Origins of Philosophyā€”published originally in Japanese and now available in four languagesā€”K?jin Karatani questions the idealization of ancient Athens as the source of philosophy and democracy by placing the origins instead in Ionia, a set of Greek colonies located in present-day Turkey. Contrasting Athenian democracy with Ionian isonomiaā€”a system based on non-rule and a lack of social divisions whereby equality is realized through the freedom to immigrateā€”Karatani shows how early Greek thinkers from Heraclitus to Pythagoras were inseparably linked to the isonomia of their Ionian origins, not democracy. He finds in isonomia a model for how an egalitarian society not driven by class antagonism might be put into practice, and resituates Socrates's work and that of his intellectual heirs as the last philosophical attempts to practice isonomia's utopic potentials. Karatani subtly interrogates the democratic commitments of Western philosophy from within and argues that the key to transcending their contradictions lies not in Athenian democracy, with its echoes of imperialism, slavery, and exclusion, but in the openness of isonomia.

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Yes, you can access Isonomia and the Origins of Philosophy by Kojin Karatani, Joseph A. Murphy in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Philosophy & Political Philosophy. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Contents
  3. Translatorā€™s Note
  4. Map
  5. Authorā€™s Preface to the Japanese Edition
  6. Introduction
  7. Chapter 1: Ionian Society and Thought
  8. Chapter 2: The Background of Ionian Natural Philosophy
  9. Chapter 3: The Essential Points of Ionian Natural Philosophy
  10. Chapter 4: Post-Ionian Thought
  11. Chapter 5: Socrates and Empire
  12. Appendix
  13. Timeline of the Ancient World
  14. Notes
  15. Bibliography
  16. Index