Subject: BHA: RE: Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis, Re Flourishing, Aristotle etc
Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 10:07:57 -0500


Hi Cox,Carrol, 

I'm not sure that I would want to say that war was the health of the "whole" culture.  That seems to imply a very high level of cultural integration, something that I regard as problematic.

Best regards,

Moodey, Richard W 

-----Original Message-----
From: Carrol Cox [mailto:cbcox-AT-ilstu.edu] 
Sent: Friday, November 14, 2003 3:17 PM
To: bhaskar-AT-lists.village.Virginia.EDU
Subject: BHA: Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis, Re Flourishing, Aristotle etc




"Moodey, Richard W" wrote:
> 
> Hi James,
> 
> One of the advantages of a list is that we are forced to be more 
> explicit about what we mean, and can review exactly what we said 
> before.  I think Bourne, and Hegel, are partially right, and partially 
> wrong.  A state can be "healthy" only in a metaphorical sense -- it 
> isn't really an organism.  So they are wrong.  But the metaphor 
> suggests a number of propositions about the state that I think are 
> right.  Such as: war tends to decrease internal conflicts within a 
> state; war tends to empower officials of the state; war increases the 
> legitimacy of the state in the eyes of the people; etc.

Would anyone seriously want to claim that "Plato," "Aristotle," even "Demos-archy" as we know them would exist without these three battles. Was not War not only the health of "the state" but of a whole, not-yet-formed culture?

Carrol



     --- from list bhaskar-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---


     --- from list bhaskar-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---