Abstract:

In this paper I consider the role of character (ethos) in theorizing about democracy in Thucydides and Plato’s Republic. First, I consider the account of democratic character put forward by Socrates in Republic book eight in the context of his attempt to persuade Glaucon and Adimantus about the supreme value of the just life. Then I discuss Thucydides’ account of democratic character in Pericles’ Funeral Oration and the borrowing by Plato’s Socrates of a certain kind of epideictic argument from Thucydides. Are Thucydides and Socrates speaking about the same kind of citizen? How do their views of democracy rely on their particular characterizations of the typical democratic citizen? Finally, I consider how Thucydides and Plato’s Socrates invoke the idea of kairos to exemplify their views of democratic character.