In Isonomia and the Origins of Philosophy—published originally in Japanese and now available in four languages—Kōjin 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 isonomia—a system based on non-rule and a lack of social divisions whereby equality is realized through the freedom to immigrate—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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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.
Translator's Note vii Map viii Author's Preface to the Japanese Edition ix Introduction Universal Religion 1 Ethical Prophets 5 Exemplary Prophets 7 1. Ionian Society and Thought Athens and Ionia 11 Isonomia and Democracy 14 Athenian Democracy 17 State and Democracy 20 Colonization and Isonomia 22 Iceland and North America 26 Isonomia and Council 31 2, The Background of Ionian Natural Philosophy Natural Philosophy and Ethics 35 Hippocrates 39 Herodotus 42 Homer 46 Hesiod 51 3. The Essential Points of Ionian Natural Philosophy The Critique of Religion 56 Self-Moving Matter 58 Poiesis and Becoming 62 4. Post-Ionian Thought Pythagoras 68 Heraclitus 80 Parmenides 87 Post-Eliatics 96 5. Socrates and Empire The Athenian Empire and Democracy 103 Sophists and Rule by Rhetoric 107 The Trial of Socrates 110 The Riddle of Socrates 114 Daimon 118 The Socratic Method 121 Plato and Pythagoras 125 The Philosopher-King 127 Isonomia and the Philosopher-King 130 Appendix. From Structure of World History to Isonomia and the Origins of Philosophy 135 Timeline of the Ancient World 141 Notes 143 Bibliography 155 Index 159
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"A work of historical importance, this book should be read by all who are interested in the innumerable conflicts that beset the contemporary world. Essential."
"In our anti-Eurocentrist era, attempts abound to 'decenter' European legacy, to demonstrate how European ideology borrowed from and simultaneously oppressed other traditions. Kōjin Karatani does something very different: he decenters European legacy from within, shifting the accent from the classic Greek idealism (Plato, Aristotle) to its half-forgotten predecessors, the so-called Ionian materialists (Thales, Democritus), the first philosophers who were also the true founders of democratic egalitarianism. Karatani’s book makes you see the entire history of philosophy in a new way; it deserves to become an instant classic."
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780822369134
Publisert
2017-09-01
Utgiver
Vendor
Duke University Press
Vekt
272 gr
Høyde
229 mm
Bredde
152 mm
Aldersnivå
P, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Forfatter
Oversetter