PHIL 928 Thucydides
While Thucydides is not generally regarded as a philosopher, he is often read as pioneering a distinct approach to history, one that is considerably more scrupulous in distinguishing legend from fact and that is informed both by elements of pre-Socratic philosophy and the Hippokratic corpus. Moreover, he is often treated as an early theorist of international politics. In addition to this he is essential background to important themes in the political thought of Plato and Aristotle. Our approach will be to read the text with an eye to how Thucydides teaches us to understand political things from the standpoint of political men, and to understanding Thucydides's own moral judgments, especially as they are related to the question of natural right and to the idea of the common good, both of which are important themes in his history.