Class Ideology & Ancient Political Theory: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle in Social Context

by Ellen Meiksins Wood

The political thought of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle defended and justified the values and way of life of the declining and decaying landed aristocracy in opposition to Athenian democracy and the craftsmen, traders and labourers upon which it increasingly rested.

Although the Socratics recognized and condemned aristocratic regeneration, they hoped that the outlook and conduct of the nobility could be revitalized so as once more to become the foundation of civic life in order to stem the levelling tide of democracy, the tyranny of the mob, and the vulgarity that they felt were endangering Greece and especially Athens.

To be understood and appreciated fully, the classics of political theory must be viewed as basically ideological and much more closely and rigorously related to their social contexts than has usually been the case.

The point of departure for this critique of the Socratics is a particular conception of the Greek polis and its significance for Western social organization, an interpretation differing from most standard treatments. Besides casting new light upon the political thought of the Socratics, this study should help to illuminate the aristocratic myth about the character of the demos which, immortalized by the Socratics, has been a cornerstone of anti-democratic ideology and social theory in the West ever since the ancient philosophers first recorded their fears of the 'mob'.

Genres: Philosophy, Politics

275 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Ellen Meiksins Wood FRSC (April 12, 1942 – January 14, 2016) was an American-Canadian Marxist historian and scholar. From 1967 to 1996, she taught political science at Glendon College, York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

With Robert Brenner, Ellen Meiksins Wood articulated the foundations of Political Marxism, a strand of Marxist theory that places history at the centre of its analysis. It provoked a turn away from structuralisms and teleology towards historical specificity as contested process and lived praxis.

Meiksins Wood's many books and articles, were sometimes written in collaboration with her husband, Neal Wood (1922–2003). Her work has been translated into many languages, including Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Romanian, Turkish, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. Of these, The Retreat from Class received the Isaac Deutscher Memorial Prize in 1988.

Wood served on the editorial committee of the British journal New Left Review between 1984 and 1993. In 1996, she was inducted into the Royal Society of Canada, a marker of distinguished scholarship. From 1997 to 2000, Wood was an editor, along with Harry Magdoff and Paul Sweezy, of Monthly Review, the socialist magazine.