Pi Gamma Mu, International Honor Society in Social Sciences

A Note on Greek Sociological Thought Before Plato and Aristotle

Author(s): Joseph B. Gittler
Source: Social Science, Vol. 23, No. 1 (January 1948), pp. 19-23
Published by: Pi Gamma Mu, International Honor Society in Social Sciences
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Note

on
Before

Greek

Sociological

Plato

and

Thought
Aristotle

Joseph B. Gittler
AssociateProfessorof Sociology,Iowa State College
HAS often been said that Greek
IT writings have had an astonishingly
widespread influence on all western civilizations. Yet there is little evidence to indicate that men are truly
aware of the depth and breadth of the
wisdom expressed by the Greeks so
many centuries ago which bear directly or indirectly on our modern
dictatorproblems of propaganda,
the
class
ship, corrupt politics,
struggle, democracy, freedom of women,
soil erosion, reforestation, and so on
in an endless chain. In these days of
confusion, it seems fitting to turn the
leaves back and reexamine the wisdom of other ages. In any case, an
analysis of some of their ideas although not new to all readers, surely
bears reiteration.
The Greeks did not contribute very
much to our material culture. Indeed,
the technological and economic life of
Greece was more primitive than that
of many of her contemporaries, but
her intellectual attainments have
scarcely been surpassed. The postSocratic Greeks, in particular, succeeded in liberating men's minds from
the superstition, fear, and intolerance
so characteristic of earlier civilizations. Rationalism was regarded as
the highest good, all thought being
subjected to merciless scrutiny, often
in the light of the empirical world.
Free inquiry and the scientific spirit
were fostered to a greater degree than
in any preceding time or for many
centuries to come. It was this very
spirit of free inquiry that was the

forerunner of modern scientific thinking.

Education, as a separate social institution, was first established by the
Greeks. Prior to them, education was
largely the function of the family or
tribe, and consisted for the most part,
of imparting group tradition and custom. Greek education however, included the study of philosophy and
the acquisition of new knowledge.
It is, of course, not to be construed
that the entire course of Greek civilization, from its advent to its close,
glowed with the rays of a cultural
Helios. Nor can it be said that a high
plane of intellectual activity was characteristic of all the Greeks at any
given time. Many of the Greek citystates contributed little to the total
achievement of Greek culture. Nor
were the earlier Greeks - the Homeric
Greeks, and the Greeks of the ninth,
eighth and seventh centuries - as
"secular"
as the Greeks of Plato's
and Aristotle's time. As their culture
developed we see a marked emphasis
upon the secular and a veering away
from the sacred, but the earlier
Greeks still reflected a "sacred"
civilization.1 At the point at which we
first catch a glimpse of the social
thought of the Greeks they are still in
the mythological age, as can be observed in the poems of Homer and
Hesiod. It is not until the later
periods of the Attic thinkers that the
'See HarryElmerBarnerand HowardBecker,
SocialThought
FromLoreto Science(NewYork:
D. C. Heathand Co.; 1938)Vol. I, pp. 5-10.

19

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20

SOCIAL SCIENCE FOB JANUARY,1948

Greek mind becomes mobile, changing,

enquiring and "secular."

propositions as to the general nature

of social thought among the early
Greeks (the pre-Platonic and the AtPeriods of Early Greek Social Thought
tic writers exclusive of Plato and
It has been the general practice in Aristotle) suggest themselves.
the treatment of the history of social
First, by the close of the Attic
thought to begin with Plato, gliding period, Greek social thought had
over pre-Platonic ideas almost en- touched upon every conceivable phase
of social life. Since Greek life included
tirely. Several volumes have appeared
social social experiences as multifold and as
touching
upon
pre-Greek
varied as those of contemporary life,
thought and including Egyptian,
Hindu, Chinese, and Hebrew social it follows that the Greeks reflected on
thinking. In these works, there has many types of present-day social
been a woeful neglect of early Greek problems and social situations. The
(pre-Platonic)
thought on the one difference lies in the emphasis rather
and
of
the
social thought to be than in the actual content. They conhand,
found in the writings of those men centrated on those problems which
with Plato
and were most consistently pressing in
contemporaneous
Aristotle - in Greek drama, oratory, their lives. They discussed industry,
and historical works- on the other. It but few references are found regardis these two gaps that this paper will ing the effects of technology.
endeavor to fill.
Second, reason played a major role
in Greek culture. It was reason that
The General Nature and the Common
always seemed to determine Greek acAspects of Early Greek Social Thought
tion, whether it led to success or not.
There are various classifications of Throughout Greek literature the charthe cultural periods of Greek history acters are seemingly motivated by
from the archeological remains (in- reason and less by impulse and emodicating a Neolithic period) down to tion. This is truer of the Attic period
the Hellenistic age (after Alexander
than of the pre-Attic ages. In fact,
the Great). For our purposes it was appeals to beware of oratorical subfound convenient to arrange the terfuges which might cause emotional
Greek periods of social thought in ac- imbalance are made time and time
cordance with the forms of literature again in Aristophanes' dramas. What
dominant in various periods. Early
Pericles says of the Athenians applies
Greek social though may therefore only in a lesser degree to all Greeks:
fall into the following literary "We have a peculiar power, of thinkperiods: (1) the Age of Homer and ing before we act, and of acting too,
Hesiod (1250-700 B.C.) ; (2) the Lyric whereas other men are courageous
Age (700-500 B.C.) ; (3) the Attic Age from ignorance, but hesitate upon re(500-300 B.C.). The last period (500- flection."2
300 B.C.) covers and includes Plato
Third, to say that the Greeks were
and Aristotle. This paper will not dis- motivated by reason does not mean
cuss the ideas of these two men but that the Greeks were exempt from
tradition and emotional attachments
only those of their contemporaries.
It is obvious that no single idea can
survive in identical form and remain
'Henry OsbornTaylor,AncientIdeals (New
York: The MacmillanCo., 1913),Vol. I, p. 151.
unchanged over a period of nine hun- Pericles'funeral
speech,Thucydide
s,ii 40,Jowetts'
dred years. Nevertheless, several
translation.

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A NOTE ON GREEKSOCIOLOGICAL
THOUGHT

21

to prevailing ways of life and to the

Fifth, the Greeks, especially those
status quo. The age of Homer and of the Lyric and Attic ages, present a
Hesiod, and a portion of the Lyric age quasi-modern version of the nature of
might even be "ideally typed" as human nature. Many of them recogsacred societies - that is, "Communinized, in general, the acquired and
ties in which a sort of emotional halo developmental aspects of human naencircles the ways of the fathers and ture. Some considered man's nature
thereby prevents the profanation by inborn and innate, but a goodly number advanced the theory of the humanchange."3 However, this "sacred"
way of life gradually wanes as we ap- associative forces to account for the
proach the Attic period, which, it ap- shaping and forming of man's human
nature. As Theognis says, "The bad
pears, definitely exemplifies a "secular" way of life. Mental mobility, ha- are not all bad from the womb, but
bitual abstraction, rationalism, and have learnt base works and wanton
individuation become the modus vi- outrage from friendship with the bad
vendi.4 Thus reflections on justice and because they thought all they said was
the nature of the state, comparative
true."6
estimates of different types of govdisincluding
Communication,
ernments, an analysis of the problem course and language, is recognized as
of wealth, a critical evaluation of the the fundamental medium for the
theory of communism by Aristoph- transmission of culture and for the
anes, an exposition on the first socialization of the individual. As
principles of economics by Socrates in Isocrates puts it, "because there has
Xenophon's Oeconomicus - all these been implanted in us the power to
become possible with the development persuade each other and to make clear
of abstraction. For the "weaknesses"
to each other whatever we desire, not
of democracy"5 can be contemplated only have we escaped the life of wild
only when a mode of life is abstracted beasts, but we have come together and
and weighed through theory and anal- founded cities and made laws and invented arts; and, generally speaking,
ysis.
Fourth, early Greek social thought is there is no institution devised by men
unscientific in the sense that no em- which the power of speech has not
pirical investigations of impressions helped us to establish."7
and ideas are in evidence. Early
Aristophanes recognized imitation
Greek social thought, as all social re- as a factor operating in social life.
flection, springs from the accumulated Aleman suggests that human motives
experiences of the writer. But the ex- are not externally observable, but are
often concealed, and therefore difficult
perience is casual and the conclusions
are unsystematic and lacking in a to ascertain. This fact suggests his
frame of reference. However, respect recognition of the subjectivity of sofor their wide and penetrating in- cial phenomena. There is in early
sights is automatic when one reads Greek writings, then, the idea that hutheir words.
man nature is a non-inherited, develop*H. E. Barnesand H.
mental nature.
10.
op.
Becker,
cit.,
p.
*Ibid.
, p. 146.
it has often been pointed out
TheSuppliants,
1.399ff; Herodotus, Sixth,
Euripides,
BookIII, 80-81,BookV, 97; Cleon,from
History
of Syracuse, 'Elegy and Iambus,editedand translated
Thucydides,
by
Book,37; Athenagoras
fromThucydides,
Book VI, 39; Lysias,Defense J. M. Edmonds(Loeb ClassicalLibrary,
1931).
To Nicocles(Loeb ClassicalLibrary,
the Democracy, Isocrates,
Againsta Chargeoj Subverting
To Nicocles,14-17.
1928-9).
XXV, 1. 25 ff;Isocrates,

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22

SOCIAL SCIENCE FOE JANUARY,1948

that among the pre-Greek thinkers economic factors operating in society

there existed no conception of the can be construed as being similar to
group as a unit of social structure. W. I. Thomas' concept of the wish for
The same can be said about all the security.
Greeks. The concept of the group is
Eighth, there is among the Greeks
in all three periods a recognition of
almost completely absent.
However, there did exist a concep- the operation of distinct and specific
- the types of actions
tion of the "greater"
group, the social processes
Great Society. There are constant ref- per se, involved in human association.
erences to humanity as an entity and Hesiod, for example, depicts the strife
inherent in society.9 Heracleitus conto the general mass of mankind.
the basis
and
The state and social class, are the siders opposition
"cause"
of human association.10 Eutwo major forms of human groupings
repeatedly referred to in many writ- ripides wrote that "our life is conflict
ings. No precise distinction however, all."11
is made between state and society.
Ninth, social control- its nature
and
its operation - comes in for an
into
an
identical
They merge
entity.
Class as a unit of social structural extensive treatment in all of the litdifferentiation is recognized, but no erature. The most prominent form of
delineation and analysis of origin, control was thought to be the gods'
number, and nature of class per se are control of human activity. Man's acto be found. Some connection is made tivity is dependent on the will of the
between class and division of labor in gods. Offended gods punish man for
society, but causal nexus remains un- his oversight in the religious observances and sacrifices.
established.
A second source of social control is
Seventh, in modern sociological literature the concept of social forces found in the concept of fate. Fate conplays an important role. By social trols human events making them preforces are meant those factors which determined and inevitable. Sophocles
impel and motivate human behavior. writes these words for a chorus :
They are considered to be the dy- "Full manya thingdo menby seeinglearn;
erehe sees,no prophet
maydiscern,
namic, impelling activations operat- But
What
lotforhimshallleapfrom
fate'sdarkurn.""
ing in human behavior, including inBut fate and the gods are not the
terests, wishes, and attitudes. It is indeed interesting to note that some only sources of social control. Tradiawareness of these social forces is to tion, leadership, oratory, public opinbe found in Greek literature. Xeno- ion, propaganda, law, wealth, demogphon distinctly noted in society the raphy, and conditioning factors of
forces analogous to W. I. Thomas'
physical environment are all recogwish for recognition. As he says, "Am- nized as factors in channelizing the
bitious, emulous natures feel the spur
9
of praise, since some natures hunger
Hesiod,Worksand Days, 1. 41 if; (translated
Hesiod, The Homeric
by
HighG. Evelyn-White,
after praise no less than others crave
and Homrica
Loeb ClassicalLibrary,
Hymns
,
,
for meats and drinks."8 Other writers 1914).
10"Opposition
seem to have been impressed by the
and out of
bringsmentogether,
discord
comesthefairest
and all things
harmony,
force
exerted
the
desire
for
driving
by
havetheirbirthin strife."
Fragments
(Heracleitus,
wealth. The importance attached to fromC. M. Bakewell,Source
Book in Ancient
(New York: CharlesScribner's
Sons.
Philosophy
8Xenophon,
Oeconomicus,
Chapter
XIII, (trans- 1907).
lationby H. G. Dakyns(New York: Macmillan 11
Suppliants
, 552.
12Euripides,
Co.; 1897).
Sophocles,
Aias,1. 1417-1419.

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A NOTE ON GREEKSOCIOLOGICAL
THOUGHT
impulses of man and in directing his
manifest overt behavior.
Finally, probably the important
charcteristic of Greek social thought
in all of the three periods is that it is
ethical in nature. How a state should
be constructed, how the state should
control, how the individual should
conduct himself, how he should act towards others- are problems that appear again and again. War is sometimes condoned,
sometimes
condemned. No profound attempts are
made to discover the causes of war.

23

At one time hedonism is regarded as

a good ; at another time the moderate
life is exalted. The moralistic strongly
permeates all Greek writings.
From these gleanings it should be
possible to recognize that the early
works of the Greeks offer a rich
source of basic insights to the social
world which might serve as a basis for
scientific quest and verification. In addition, it might make us a little humble when we appraise our own contributions to the body of knowledge
in the social sciences.

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