History of Peloponnesian War by Thucydides free essay sample

Examines war political morality justice in Greeks history in light of Leo Strausss [The City Man]. A parallel argument might well be made in favor of political history, as opposed to formal political philosophy, as a means of addressing the fundamental question of politics, namely the problems of morality and justice, or even more fundamentally the problems of people and communities in managing to live together. The classical political philosophers, Plato and Aristotle, posited hypothetical ideal states, existing in no actual time or place, subjected to no real challenges. Their work, like allegory, forces itself on the reader, allowing little scope for the readers independent interpretation. In contrast, history offers not only analysis but evidence. Inevitably, the evidence is itself colored by the authors presentation, yet the evidence is still there, and the reader thus has much greater freedom to reach his or her own