Thucydides, Plato and Stasis

Abstract

Thucydides and Plato are often read in opposed or equivalent intellectual registers (cf. Strauss, Guthrie, Ober, Mara). If the former, they speak past one another. If the latter, their different purposes have no interpretive effect. This article notes how each seeks to ameliorate stasis by means of different accounts of the logos–ergon relationship; in so doing, it points out political and theoretical differences and similarities. It yields insights into what Thucydides and Plato were doing and saying, and it illustrates how reading each about stasis can bridge undue gaps between the critical discourses of history and political theory and their relationships to democratic thought.