Ancient Greece Declassified

An announcement about the upcoming Ancient Greece Declassified tour in Greece this summer. 

The cave analogy, which takes up the majority of book 7 of the Republic, is one of the most famous passages in all of western philosophy. In this episode, we are joined by Ben Morison, professor of philosophy at Princeton, to dive deep into the allegory and unpack its various levels of meaning. 

Plato is at once the most loved and possibly the most hated philosopher of all time. This episode explores five reasons why he drives some people mad. Contents of the episode, with timestamps: Reason 1: Who should rule? [7:30] Reason 2: What political system is best? [12:20] The Ship of State [15:10] Reason 3: What is truth? [20:20] Reason 4: What is knowledge? [30:35] The Divided Line [40:25] Rea...

Where does the notion of 'moral duty' come from? In this conversation with Simon E. Drew we dive deep into the history of the concept and discuss my recent book The Invention of Duty .  This episode was originally published on The Walled Garden   podcast and is here republished as a crosscast. 

Book 6 of the Republic is the work's core section where Plato lays out his metaphysics. Appealing to his signature Theory of Forms, Plato offers a transcendent vision of the Good as the ultimate source of human knowledge. Joining us to help us unpack this theory is Gabriel Richardson Lear, professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago and author of the book Happy Lives and the Highest Good:...

Was Homer was influenced by the stories of civilizations to the east of Greece? Joining us to discuss the Hittites and their potential (direct and indirect) influences on the Greek epic tradition is Mary Bachvarova, professor of classics at Willamette University and author of From Hittite to Homer: The Anatolian Background of Ancient Greek Epic ------------------ Support Ancient Greece Declassifie...

The most controversial part of Plato's Republic is its fifth book, wherein Socrates argues for the political equality of men and women, the abolition of the nuclear family, a strange eugenics program, and the idea that philosophers kings and philosopher queens should be put in charge of political affairs.  With us to discuss book 5 is Mary Townsend, assistant professor of philosophy at Saint John'...

In book 4 of the Republic , Plato sets forth perhaps the most famous psychological theory from Greco-Roman antiquity: the tripartite model of the human soul. But how good of a model is it? How does it hold up from the perspective of modern psychology? With us to discuss these questions and more is Jonathan Lear, professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago and a practicing psychoanalyst wh...

What do Plato's Republic, Sigmund Freud, and the Harry Potter saga have in common? Find out in this episode, which offers an exploration of book 4 of Plato's Republic and its many parallels in modern literature and psychology. 

Was Alexander the Great really that *great* on his own? Or did he owe much of his success to the work of his father Philip II of Macedonia? Joining us to discuss the matter is Adrian Goldsworthy, military historian and author of the new book Philip and Alexander: Kings and Conquerors . A video version of this episode is available on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/zZwyvimmX3k ------------------ Suppo...

In the second half of book 3 of the Republic , Plato lays out the controversial theory of  mimesis , which states that all art, man-made objects, and cultural products in our environment have profound effects on the health of our souls.  With us to help us unpack, analyze, and evaluate Plato's arguments is, once again, Angie Hobbs, professor of the public understanding of philosophy at the Univers...

Following Socrates' claim that the ideal republic should be ruled by a class of "guardians," the question naturally arises: Who or what will keep these guardians in check? How do you prevent the government from becoming an unaccountable and oppressive regime? Our exploration of Plato's Republic continues, this time with Angie Hobbs, professor of the public understanding of philosophy at the Univer...

Following Socrates' claim that the ideal republic should be ruled by a class of "guardians," the question naturally arises: Who or what will keep these guardians in check? How do you prevent the government from becoming an unaccountable and oppressive regime? Our exploration of Plato's Republic continues, this time with Angie Hobbs, professor of the public understanding of philosophy at the Univer...

This episode is a crosscast in collaboration with the Classical Wisdom Speaks podcast. Anya Leonard, host of that pod and founder of classicalwisdom.com , interviews me about my new book The Invention of Duty: Stoicism as Deontology. 

Our exploration of Plato's Republic continues with this discussion of book 2 with philosopher Rachel Barney. Is the fear of God necessary for morality? How can you educate people so that they value and practice justice? Rachel Barney is professor of classics and ancient philosophy at the University of Toronto. She specializes in the work Plato and has spent many years analyzing and unraveling some...

The third installment in our ongoing series on Plato's  Republic.  Use the following timestamps for easier navigation: 2:40 Introduction to book 2 11:35 Glaucon's speech in favor of injustice 20:00 Adeimantus' speech on the weakness of pro-justice arguments 26:30 Socrates reply; the city-soul analogy 38:20 The education of the Guardians 44:40 Analysis and conclusion ------------------ Support  Anc...

The second installment in our 11-part series on Plato's Republic . Use the following timestamps for easier navigation: 0:22 Introduction: virtues vs values 7:10 The beginning of the Republic 13:50 Cephalus' "definition" of justice 15:10 Polemarchus tries to define justice 29:30 Thrasymachus challenges Socrates 34:20 Thrasymachus tries to define justice 42:25 Thrasymachus praises injustice 54:45 Ep...

A foundational text in both ethics and political thought, the  Republic  was shaped by Plato's traumatic experiences as a young man witnessing civil war and the collapse of Athenian democracy. This is the first installment in an 11-part series on this classic work.  The episode has four parts, beginning at the following time-stamps: 0:22 Introduction to the work and to the series 8:50 Historical B...

Rome conquered the Mediterranean world without a professional army, relying instead on its citizens to take up arms when necessary. How did these part-time soldiers defeat all the great powers of the ancient Mediterranean? Our guest Steele Brand offers an original answer to this question in his new book Killing for the Republic: Citizen Soldiers and the Roman Way of War . Brand is professor of his...

Penelope is one of the most compelling characters from ancient Greek mythology. And yet her intelligence and agency in Homer's Odyssey is seldom appreciated. Towards the end of the epic, Penelope comes face-to-face with Odysseus, who has finally returned home disguised as a beggar. After they exchange a few stories (with Odysseus still maintaining his disguise), Penelope sets in motion a chain of...

The Athenian historian Thucydides observed and chronicled the greatest military conflict of his day: the epic contest between Athens and Sparta known as the Peloponnesian War (431-404BC). Much more than just a straightforward history, his work is a study of the struggle between democracy and oligarchy, as well as a meditation on the dangers of populism and political polarization. Perhaps for this...

What methods and institutions do oligarchic regimes use to maintain their power? How do they fend off the threat of democratic revolution? What happened to the many oligarchies of the ancient Mediterranean? All of these questions and more are explored in this second part of our conversation with historian Matt Simonton, author of Classical Greek Oligarchy . ------------------ Support us on Patreon...

How do ancient oligarchies compare with modern authoritarian regimes? How did civil war in oligarchies differ from civil war in democracies? What does the age-old ideological struggle between democracy and oligarchy imply about our future? These are just a few of the questions we discuss on this and the next episode.  This episode covers: what oligarchy actually is, and how this political form aro...

According to the historical evidence, the first stirrings of philosophical inquiry began 2600 years ago in ancient Greece with a group of thinkers known as the Presocratics (or pre-Socratics). In this episode we try to shed light on these early pioneers of philosophy. Our guest is André Laks, professor of ancient philosophy at Universidad Panamericana in Mexico City. Laks is the co-editor of the r...

We live at a time of increasing economic inequality worldwide. What is driving this trend? And what are the factors that can stabilize or even reduce levels of inequality? Answering this question empirically would require a deep dive into the archives of history. One would have to sift through millennia of economic data across continents and civilizations. Our guest today took on this gargantuan t...