Ancient Greek Ideas of Justice - Melissa Lane

In the poetry of the Athenian lawgiver Solon, justice (dikē) was a boundary stone marking out terms that rich and poor alike could respect. Yet ancient Greek authors also recognised the danger that the powerful will simply exploit those less powerful, and that Greek societies enforced slavery.
This lecture explores ancient Greek aspirations to justice - and how they fell short - as a call for recurrent interrogation of the terms governing power and vulnerability.
This lecture was recorded by Melissa Lane on 11th January 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
Melissa is Gresham Professor of Rhetoric.
Melissa is an author, lecturer and broadcaster who has received major awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship and Lucy Shoe Meritt Residency in Classical Studies at the American Academy of Rome.
www.gresham.ac.uk/speakers/pr...
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/g...
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Пікірлер: 43

  • @wordswords2094
    @wordswords20944 ай бұрын

    Fascinating. Thank you for this wonderful gift.

  • @henrysymes
    @henrysymes4 ай бұрын

    Never thought I’d leave this comment - that was a great call to action spot. Right length, right tone, right point in the video. Hats off folks.

  • @DemetriosKongas
    @DemetriosKongas4 ай бұрын

    What a wonderful exposition of Solon's ideas and practices and their comparison and contrast with Rawls's theory!

  • @WilliamAllen-hr7pq

    @WilliamAllen-hr7pq

    4 ай бұрын

    Thanks goddess of most hi with trueth we know that it's not real we mide it up on gods house goddess and sume us men or reale boys not noing yet

  • @richdobbs6595
    @richdobbs65954 ай бұрын

    Fascinating to have Rawls ideas being forwarded by a Baroness!

  • @tarhunta2111
    @tarhunta21114 ай бұрын

    That was fascinating.

  • @eldraque4556
    @eldraque45564 ай бұрын

    totally excellent

  • @reedkellner6447
    @reedkellner64474 ай бұрын

    0:25 John Rawls "veil of ignorance."

  • @deadman746
    @deadman7464 ай бұрын

    Thank you. I was looking for some Greek background to contrast with Roman justice and more importantly English common law and its development into parliamentary statutory law and equity driven by chancery. It also illustrates just how much Descartes expanded upon Greek rationalism. I like Rawls, but a lot of his assertions I find bald. Fortunately, mathematical game theory and neuroscience have come to the rescue. Also I need to point out that Jewish tradition is closer to Rawls. I like Raw

  • @CoolBreezeHeals

    @CoolBreezeHeals

    4 ай бұрын

    Don't forget to throw in a dash of the ancient irish Triads as well. For flavor! 😊

  • @deadman746

    @deadman746

    4 ай бұрын

    @@CoolBreezeHeals Of course.

  • @jamesbuchanan3888
    @jamesbuchanan38884 ай бұрын

    In regards to the "veil of ignorance" I like to add a simple caveat to the mix. ... Assume that whatever kind of governing and incentive structures you choose will have been in full effect for the previous 500 years. Does your answer change? The Solon idea that people must take sides appears to stem from the concept of a democracy. If only 25% even voted, can the will of the majority be accurately discerned?

  • @EcclesiastesLiker-py5ts
    @EcclesiastesLiker-py5ts19 күн бұрын

    Assuming that religion is a charicteristic like ethnicity is mistaken, you can't change your ethnicity, religion can be arived at through logical reasoning.

  • @alecmisra4964
    @alecmisra49644 ай бұрын

    Is it just to artificially erase the advantages won for us by our ancestor's hard work and suffering? (Re John Rawl's Theory of Justice). My own view is that there has to be a middle way in justice (broadly speaking).

  • @eldraque4556
    @eldraque45564 ай бұрын

    is this the same Salon related to Plato?

  • @iliasmastoris529

    @iliasmastoris529

    4 ай бұрын

    Yes, Plato's ancestor. The guy who went to Egypt and learnt about Atlantis.

  • @Matlacha_Painter
    @Matlacha_Painter4 ай бұрын

    Isn’t the statue of Justice which is atop the “Old Bailey”, a symbol of English justice, depicted WITHOUT a blindfold? Does the American who is lecturing know this? The audience?

  • @mach-symroscisawski1560

    @mach-symroscisawski1560

    3 ай бұрын

    She has many more shortcomings than just this one :) personally I think she confuses FAIR and JUST. but probably it's only me.

  • @hugor1338

    @hugor1338

    3 ай бұрын

    Great point. I'd have guessed blindfold, but she is not. And those guys knew about the choice they were making, they had a classical education.

  • @MarcusBrutus-nu9yj
    @MarcusBrutus-nu9yj4 ай бұрын

    We may have gotten our notions of law from the so called Greeks however you are actually talking about Athenian Spartan Corinthian etc notions the bible and cannon law influenced common law and then ultimately statutory law created under the Napoleonic code adopted by the us throwing of the shackles of English bailey notions of justice interesting spin though but how many Americans would go for abortion by throwing babies away by the practice of exposure which even the Romans considered barbaric hence the referral to Greeks as baa baa rians

  • @ChristopherWilliams-cs3dp
    @ChristopherWilliams-cs3dp4 ай бұрын

    Did she really say that a disparity in size was a relatively minor😂 tell that to the person that can't get the average job because of their height . I would argue that a person's height whether being abnormally tall or abnormally small would play more of a mitigating factor in the outcome of their lives versus someone's racial makeup

  • @pinchebruha405
    @pinchebruha4054 ай бұрын

    Clarence Thomas needs no hands!

  • @keithklassen5320

    @keithklassen5320

    4 ай бұрын

    You mean he needs *to have* no hands?

  • @niksatan
    @niksatan3 ай бұрын

    There is no Justice, because every person has its own idea of justice. What is just for me, it is not just for you etc

  • @jdstar6352
    @jdstar63524 ай бұрын

    Perhaps it is me, but I found this lecture unintelligible. The ideas seemed embedded in a purely semantic universe. Fundamental concepts such as "clear sightedness" seemed wobbly and only vaguely defined, although instrumental to the lecturer's argument. In fact, the very idea that the lecture was advancing an argument was obscure. Possibly this lecture was designed as a contribution to some arcane academic controversy that goes completely over the heads of general audiences.

  • @myparceltape1169

    @myparceltape1169

    3 ай бұрын

    History in a different country. But in some çountries slaves and indentured servitude still exist.

  • @minispud

    @minispud

    3 ай бұрын

    Very plainly spoken

  • @lipingrahman6648
    @lipingrahman66482 ай бұрын

    There are so many problems with Rawls idea, much like Plato, it’s laughable and typical of so much of philosophy.

  • @stevekristoff4365
    @stevekristoff43654 ай бұрын

    Would have been much more interesting if this actually went toward the title of the lecture opposed to trying to compare it to a modern socialist's ideas of what /he/ things justice should be.

  • @hugor1338

    @hugor1338

    3 ай бұрын

    More about Rawls than the Greeks. Is it because she's a woman, because she's a liberal/Democrat or because of a cultural tradition of tikkun olam?

  • @chipsellarole267
    @chipsellarole2674 ай бұрын

    Thank you. But reading your presentation uggggg.

  • @Dragon34th
    @Dragon34th4 ай бұрын

    Greek justice is not helping Greece right now in terms of jobs for the young and old people. Varufakis is plein crazy.

  • @mach-symroscisawski1560
    @mach-symroscisawski15603 ай бұрын

    As I have pointed it out in another comment the speaker confuses a lot of terms in between tsse he others JUST and FAIR. She seems to be well read but at the same time lacks finesse. relatively disappointing lecture.

  • @pinchebruha405
    @pinchebruha4054 ай бұрын

    A.I will solve all of our problems when they realize we’re just very busy ants destroying the planet for the most part

  • @SeamusMcFitz-jz9if
    @SeamusMcFitz-jz9if4 ай бұрын

    Where are the Greeks now? All their ideas originated in India or the middle east. Period.

  • @iliasmastoris529

    @iliasmastoris529

    4 ай бұрын

    All?

  • @lipingrahman6648
    @lipingrahman66482 ай бұрын

    There are so many problems with Rawls idea, much like Plato, it’s laughable and typical of so much of philosophy.