| 021001 |
The instrumental value of others and
institutional change: An Athenian case study |
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Josiah Ober, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - A primary motive for certain
Athenian rule changes in the direction of increased
legal access and impartiality in the fourth century
B.C. was Athenian awareness of the increased
instrumental value of foreigners. New Athenian rules
were aimed at persuading foreigners to do business in
Athens. Foreigners gained greater access to some
Athenian institutions, and fairness, in the sense of
impartiality, was more evident in some forms of legal
decision-making. These new rules appear to have worked;
Athens became more prosperous by the later fourth
century, at least in part because foreigners liked the
new rules and so did more business there. Because
increased access and impartiality were not prompted by
a changed Athenian approach to the ends/means
distinction, a Kantian deontologist would deny that the
new rules made Athens a better place. A
consequentialist might disagree. Written for a
Leiden/Penn collection of essays on “Valuing Others,”
in progress, edited by R. Rosen and I. Sluiter. |
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| 090901 |
An Aristotelian middle way between deliberation
and independent-guess aggregation |
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Josiah Ober, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - A well-known passage of
Aristotle’s Politics (3.1281a42-b10) concerning the
“wisdom of the crowd” offers an attractive and
plausible alternative to deliberation and independent
guess aggregation, the two currently-prominent
approaches to judgment and decision in an epistemic
democracy. The Politics passage is clarified by
reference to Aristotle’s discussion of the six parts of
tragedy (Poetics 1450a6-14). |
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| 080902 |
Thucydides on Athens’ Democratic Advantage in
the Archidamian War |
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Josiah Ober, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - In book 1 Thucydides’ Corinthians
attribute Athenian military success in the Archidamian
war to an inherent national character. They empahsize
the characteristics of agility, speed, and common-good
seeking. Thucydides’ readers come to realize that the
Athenian “democratic advantage” stemmed from a superior
capacity to organize useful knowledge. Knowledge
management in military affairs can be learned; the
Athenians fared poorly in the later stages of the war
in part because they failed to countenance the
possibility that their own techniques could be adapted
by their rivals. |
|
Replaces 090702 entitled Athenian Military
Performance in Archidamian War. To appear in a
volume on "Democracy and Greek Warfare," edited by
David Pritchard |
|
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| 080901 |
Epistemic democracy in classical Athens:
Sophistication, diversity, and innovation. |
|
Josiah Ober, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - Analysis of democracy in Athens
as an “epistemic” (knowledge-based) form of political
and social organization. Adapted from Ober,
Democracy and Knowledge, chapters 1-4. Jon
Elster (ed.), volume on “Collective Wisdom” (to be
published in English and French). |
|
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| 070902 |
Comparing democracies. A spatial method with
application to ancient Athens |
|
Josiah Ober, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - A graphic method for specifying
historians’ judgments about political change, with
special reference to the distance and the direction
that Athenian democracy had moved from the era of
Cleisthenes to that of Lycurgus. For Vincent Azoulay
and Paulin Ismard (eds.). Cleisthène et Lycurgue
d’Athènes: Autour du politique dans la cité
classique. Editions du Sorbonne, Paris. |
|
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| 070901 |
Access, Fairness, and Transaction Costs:
Nikophon's law on silver coinage (Athens: 375/4
BC) |
|
Josiah Ober, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - Several distinctive, and
initially puzzling features of Nikophon's law on silver
coinage (Rhodes/Osborne 25) become clear in light of
the Athenian state's attempt to drive down transaction
costs in order to maintainAthenian public revenues and
private profits in the post-imperial era. I suggest
that the law was explicitly intended to even the
playing field of trade by ensuring non-citizens access
to an impartial system of coin verification (the
dokimastai), and to dispute resolution
mechanisms (the People's courts). Nikophon's law is a
relatively early example of the Athenian state's
concern for adjusting established institutions with an
eye toward lowering the transaction costs associated
with trading in the Athenian market through reducing
information and legal asymmetries. A similar concern
recurs in the mid-fourth century "maritime cases"
(dikai emporikai) and in Xenophon's mid-century
text, the Poroi. Adapted from Ober, Democracy
and Kowlege, chapter 6. |
|
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| 090704 |
The original meaning of “democracy”: Capacity to
do things, not majority rule. |
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Josiah Ober, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - That the original meaning of
democracy is “capacity to do things” not “majority
rule” emerges from a study of the fifth and fourth
century B.C. Greek vocabulary for regime-types. Special
attention is given to –kratos root and
–arche root terms. Paper delivered at the
American Political Science Association meetings,
Philadelphia, 2006. |
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| 090703 |
What the Ancient Greeks Can Tell Us About
Democracy |
|
Josiah Ober, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - The question of what the ancient
Greeks can tell us about democracy can be answered by
reference to three fields that have traditionally been
pursued with little reference to one another: ancient
history, classical political theory, and political
science. These fields have been coming into more
fruitful contact over the last 20 years, as evidenced
by a spate of interdisciplinary work. Historians,
political theorists, and political scientists
interested in classical Greek democracy are
increasingly capable of leveraging results across
disciplinary lines. As a result, the classical Greek
experience has more to tell us about the origins and
definition of democracy, and about the relationship
between participatory democracy and formal
institutions, rhetoric, civic identity, political
values, political criticism, war, economy, culture, and
religion. |
|
Forthcoming in Annual Reviews in Political
Science 2007 |
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| 090702 |
Athenian Military Performance in the Archidamian
War: Thucydides on Democracy and Knowledge |
|
Josiah Ober, Stanford University |
| > |
Abstract - Athenian military success in the
Archidamian war is attributed by the Corinthians in
book 1 of Thucydides to an inherent national character.
Although the Athenians do manifest the characteristics
of agility, speed, and common-good seeking that the
Corinthians attribute to the Athenians, the source of
Athenian exceptionalism is better sought in the
development of democratic institutions and associated
patterns of behavior. Athens did well in military
operations because of its superior management of useful
knowledge. Likewise, breakdown in knowledge management
is a key reason for Athenian military failures in the
latter part of the war. |
|
This has been replaced by paper 080901. To appear
in a volume on "Democracy and Greek Warfare," edited by
David Pritchard |
|
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| 020702 |
Towards Open Access in Ancient Studies: The
Princeton-Stanford Working Papers in Classics |
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Josiah Ober, Stanford University |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
|
Brent D. Shaw, Princeton University |
|
Donna Sanclemente, Princeton University |
 |
Abstract - An investigation of the present
impact and future prospects of open access electronic
publication of scholarly research on working papers
sites, based on the authors’ collective experience with
developing and maintaining a WP site for Classics and
Classical Archaeology. |
|
This paper has now been published in
Hesperia vol. 76 (2007), pp. 229-242. |
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| 070604 |
Natural Capacities and Democracy as a
Good-in-Itself |
|
Josiah Ober, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - A paper on moral and political
philosophy, arguing on Aristotelian grounds, that
democracy is not only an instrumental good, but a
good-in-itself for humans, because the exercise of
constitutive natural capacities is and end, necessary
for true happiness (understood as eudaimonia), and
democracy (understood as association in decision) is a
constitutive natural human capacity of humans.
Forthcoming, winter 2006 in Philosophical
Studies. |
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| 070603 |
From epistemic diversity to common knowledge:
Rational rituals and publicity in democratic
Athens. |
|
Josiah Ober, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - Effective organization of
knowledge allows democracies to meet Darwinian
challenges, and thus avoid elimination by more
hierarchical rivals. Institutional processes capable of
aggregating diverse knowledge and coordinating action
promote the flourishing of democratic communities in
competitive environments. Institutions that increase
the credibility of commitments and build common
knowledge are key aspects of democratic coordination.
“Rational rituals,” through which credible commitments
and common knowledge are effectively publicized, were
prevalent in democratic Athens. Analysis of parts of
Lycurgus’ speech Against Leocrates reveals some
key features of the how rational rituals worked to
build common knowledge in Athens. This paper, adapted
from a book-in-progess, is fortthcoming in the journal
Episteme. |
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| 070602 |
Socrates and democratic Athens: The story of the
trial in its historical and legal contexts. |
|
Josiah Ober, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - Socrates was both a loyal citizen
(by his own lights) and a critic of the democratic
community’s way of doing things. This led to a crisis
in 339 B.C. In order to understand Socrates’ and the
Athenian community’s actions (as reported by Plato and
Xenophon) it is necessary to understand the historical
and legal contexts, the democratic state’s commitment
to the notion that citizens are resonsible for the
effects of their actions, and Socrates’ reasons for
preferring to live in Athens rather than in states that
might (by his lights) have had substantively better
legal systems. Written for the Cambridge Companion
to Socrates. |
|
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| 110515 |
Thucydides and the invention of political
science |
|
Josiah Ober, Princeton University |
 |
Abstract - Thucydides self-consciously
invented a new form of inquiry, which can reasonably be
called “social and political science.” His intellectual
goal was a new understanding of power and its
relationship to human agency and the deep structures of
human society. His understanding of agency and
structure is in some ways reminiscent of the
reflexivity theory developed by Anthony Giddens. |
|
|
| 110514 |
Solon and the 'Horoi': Facts on the Ground in
Archaic Athens |
|
Josiah Ober, Princeton University |
|
No longer available as a working paper. This is now
published as: Josiah Ober, "Solon and the Horoi." In J.
Blok and A. Lardinois (eds.), Solon: New Historical
and Philological Perspectives (E.J. Bill: Leiden),
441-456. |
|
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| 110513 |
“I Besieged that Man”: Democracy’s Revolutionary
Start. |
|
Josiah Ober, Princeton University |
 |
Abstract - The origins of democracy at
Athens should be sought in a revolutionary moment in
508/7 B.C. and the subsequent institutional reforms
associated with Cleistehenes. An revised version of the
argument first offered by the author in "The Athenian
Revolution of 508/7 B.C.E: Violence, Authority, and the
Origins of Democracy," in C. Dougherty and L. Kurke
(ed.), Cultural Poetics in Archaic Greece: Cult,
Performance, Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press
1993), 215-232. |
|
|
| 110512 |
Democratic Athens as an Experimental System:
History and the Project of Political Theory. |
|
Josiah Ober, Princeton University |
 |
Abstract - Athens as a case study can be
useful as an “exemplary narrative” for political
science and normative political, on the analogy of the
biologicial use of as certain animals (e.g. mice or
zebrafish) as “model systems” subject to intensive
study by many researchers. |
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