Власть общественного мнения в Афинской демократии: трибунал или рациональность

The article deals with the peculiarities of the functioning of public opinion in the ancient Greek polis. The author aims to prove that public opinion in ancient times did not always and did not everywhere represent only a collection of the traditional concepts of the due. Under Athenian democracy a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSot͡s︡iologicheskiĭ zhurnal no. 2; p. 134
Main Author Gasparishvili, A T
Format Journal Article
LanguageRussian
Published Moscow Rossiiskaya Akademiya Nauk, Institut Sotsiologii 01.01.2014
Subjects
Antiquity
Citizen participation
Democracy
Epistemology
Everyday life
Historians
Inequality
Kinship
Modernity
Politics
Public opinion
Rationality
Tribunals & commissions
Well being
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Summary:The article deals with the peculiarities of the functioning of public opinion in the ancient Greek polis. The author aims to prove that public opinion in ancient times did not always and did not everywhere represent only a collection of the traditional concepts of the due. Under Athenian democracy and in other democratic polises it existed as a product of a discussion among the free citizens taking part in politics, and, in this respect, it was a phenomenon of the same order as public opinion in Modern Times. Proceeding from the works by ancient and modern authors, specific features of Athenian public opinion are described and explained, and discussions between Athenian thinkers on its subject and epistemological value are reconstructed. The article makes use of works by ancient Greek philosophers and historians, explorers of antiquity, and sociologists engaged in public opinion studies. The author also identifies factors which limited the omnipotence of Athenian public opinion. Those were the causes of metaphysical character, that is, natural inequality due to the divine kinship of eminent personalities, participation of divine forces in the daily life of ancient Greeks, and also the social and economic causes implying the preference of personal well-being to common good. Despite those limitations, the public opinion under Athenian democracy, based on a wide citizen participation in discussing important problems of the functioning of society and state, was an important instrument of governing the antique polis.
ISSN:1562-2495
1684-1581