Interest and Self-Interest in Ancient Athens (Paperback)

Interest and self-interest are concepts that have attracted the attention of multiple disciplines in the last decades. In this monograph, the author relies on previous debates as well as new theories in order to examine how these behaviors function in ancient Greece. This survey deals with major issues related to the Greek citizen and the polis as a whole: the gnoseology of self-interest, the manipulation of conflicting interests, the balance between expediency and justice, the vigor of competitive spirit among the Greeks, and the conciliation of private and common good. The symphéron cannot be perceived beyond the context and framework of the much-discussed topics of individualism and utilitarian trends in ancient Greek thought and civic "ideology." Exploring these aspects of his subject-matter, the author provides a number of clues as to how one may better comprehend the polis’ stratagems to "invent" those devices needed to aggregate the one into the many.