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Moses I. Finley Quotes (1912-1986)
About Moses I. Finley
Sir Moses I. Finley CBE FBA (May 20, 1912 – June 23, 1986) was an American and English classical scholar.
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“Historical explanation is not identical with moral judgment.”
“A genuinely political society, in which discussion and debate are an essential technique, is a society full of risks.”
“If I had to choose one which best characterized the condition of being a political leader in Athens, the word would be "tension".”
“And nothing inhibited fourth-century orators in the assembly and the law-courts from indulging in savage slander, without a touch of humour in it.”
“The Athenians made mistakes. Which governmental system has not? The familiar game of condemning Athens for not having lived to some ideal of perfection is a stultifying approach.”
“Perhaps the best known, and certainly the most vaunted, "discovery" of modern public opinion research is the indifference and ignorance of a majority of the electorate in western democracies.”
“Faction is the greatest evil and the most common danger. "Faction" is the conventional English translation of the Greek stasis, one of the most remarkable words to be found in any language.”
“In Rome much pamphleteering took the form of verses and songs, circulated orally, or of libelli , defamatory placards or broadsheets (whence our word "libel").”
“What I am arguing, in effect, is that the full democratic system of the second half of the fifth century B.C. would not have been introduced had there been no Athenian empire.”
“Political leaders, lacking documents that could be kept secret (apart from the occasional exception), lacking media they could control, were of necessity brought into a direct and immediate relationship with their constituents, and therefore under more and direct and immediate control.”
“From Aristophanes to Aristotle, the attack on the demagogues always falls back on the one central question: in whose interest does the the leader lead?”
“We must consider not only why the classical theory of democracy appears to be in contradiction with the observed practice, but also why the many different responses to this observation, though mutually incompatible, all share the belief that democracy is the best form of political organization.”
What Moses I. Finley Said About Others
Discover personal opinions Moses I. Finley shared regarding contemporaries.
Moses I. Finley on Theodor Mommsen
“Mommsen, the indisputable Meister of Roman history, unrivalled in his own day and today.”
Moses I. Finley on Hesiod
“"What was at the beginning?" Gigon said of Hesiod, "is the question of history precisely at the point where it turns into philosophy... The question Hesiod poses is no longer about the historical past, but about the beginning of what exists, the question of philosophical origins..." But "history" is wholly out of place here. Hesiod is foreshadowing the step from mythos to logos, and that step was not mediated by history. It bypassed history altogether. It moved from the timelessness of myth to the timelessness of metaphysics.”
About Moses I. Finley
Sir Moses I. Finley CBE FBA (May 20, 1912 – June 23, 1986) was an American and English classical scholar.