Workshop - The mixed constitution The workshop will be led by Pasquale Pasquino (NYU), who will deliver an introductory paper, followed by discussion and responses by Neil Walker (School of Law, University of Edinburgh), Mathias Thaler (School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Edinburgh), Alberto Esu, Benjamin Gray and Mirko Canevaro (Department of Classics, University of Edinburgh). Philip Horky (Durham University) will introduce five fragments from ‘On Law and Justice’ attributed to Archytas of Tarentum. For many centuries, from Aristotle to Montesquieu, the mixed constitution (and not democracy) has been in the West the ideal model of good government. Introduced to the Romans by Polybius, who in his Histories Book 6 devoted a famous chapter to the Romaion politeia, the idea will survive under the Roman Empire and along the Middle Age, and will be brilliantly revived by Machiavelli, who used the word republica to qualify, notably in his major work, the Discourses on Livy, the mixed government. This classical model of good government, at the time of the European religious civil wars, became the polemical target and the object of devastating attack by Jean Bodin and Thomas Hobbes. But it was only with the French Revolution and the Philadelphia Constitution that the old venerable ideal was to be wiped out. It did nonetheless resurface in the language of contemporary political theory quite frequently in the last twenty years or so, in the form of various, ambiguous and mostly unspecified meanings. The workshop will explore in particular these themes: it will clarify the signification of the Aristotelian expression memigmene politeia. This demands that one takes into account the anatomy of the city, which is the starting point of Aristotle’s conceptualization and taxonomy of politeiai; it will compare Aristotle’s conception vis-à-vis the realities of ‘divided power’ of Athens, Sparta and the world of the late-Hellenistic poleis; it will consider the conceptual revolution originated by Thomas Hobbes in Western political culture; a revolution which made impossible to think the classical doctrine of the mixed constitution; it will explore the revival of the expression mixed constitution in the contemporary political theory language and rhetoric, in particular in connection with modern conceptions of constitutionalism without state. There is no booking fee or fee for lunch, tea of coffee, etc. but all those wishing to attend should email Matteo Barbato on m.barbato@sms.ed.ac.uk by Wednesday 18th January, also indication if they would like to join us for dinner at your own expense. Jan 23 2017 09.30 - 17.00 Workshop - The mixed constitution A workshop organised by the Department of Classics and the Institute of Advanced Studies in the Humanities of the University of Edinburgh. Institute of Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Hope Park Square, Edinburgh EH8 9NW Find IASH
Workshop - The mixed constitution The workshop will be led by Pasquale Pasquino (NYU), who will deliver an introductory paper, followed by discussion and responses by Neil Walker (School of Law, University of Edinburgh), Mathias Thaler (School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Edinburgh), Alberto Esu, Benjamin Gray and Mirko Canevaro (Department of Classics, University of Edinburgh). Philip Horky (Durham University) will introduce five fragments from ‘On Law and Justice’ attributed to Archytas of Tarentum. For many centuries, from Aristotle to Montesquieu, the mixed constitution (and not democracy) has been in the West the ideal model of good government. Introduced to the Romans by Polybius, who in his Histories Book 6 devoted a famous chapter to the Romaion politeia, the idea will survive under the Roman Empire and along the Middle Age, and will be brilliantly revived by Machiavelli, who used the word republica to qualify, notably in his major work, the Discourses on Livy, the mixed government. This classical model of good government, at the time of the European religious civil wars, became the polemical target and the object of devastating attack by Jean Bodin and Thomas Hobbes. But it was only with the French Revolution and the Philadelphia Constitution that the old venerable ideal was to be wiped out. It did nonetheless resurface in the language of contemporary political theory quite frequently in the last twenty years or so, in the form of various, ambiguous and mostly unspecified meanings. The workshop will explore in particular these themes: it will clarify the signification of the Aristotelian expression memigmene politeia. This demands that one takes into account the anatomy of the city, which is the starting point of Aristotle’s conceptualization and taxonomy of politeiai; it will compare Aristotle’s conception vis-à-vis the realities of ‘divided power’ of Athens, Sparta and the world of the late-Hellenistic poleis; it will consider the conceptual revolution originated by Thomas Hobbes in Western political culture; a revolution which made impossible to think the classical doctrine of the mixed constitution; it will explore the revival of the expression mixed constitution in the contemporary political theory language and rhetoric, in particular in connection with modern conceptions of constitutionalism without state. There is no booking fee or fee for lunch, tea of coffee, etc. but all those wishing to attend should email Matteo Barbato on m.barbato@sms.ed.ac.uk by Wednesday 18th January, also indication if they would like to join us for dinner at your own expense. Jan 23 2017 09.30 - 17.00 Workshop - The mixed constitution A workshop organised by the Department of Classics and the Institute of Advanced Studies in the Humanities of the University of Edinburgh. Institute of Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Hope Park Square, Edinburgh EH8 9NW Find IASH
Jan 23 2017 09.30 - 17.00 Workshop - The mixed constitution A workshop organised by the Department of Classics and the Institute of Advanced Studies in the Humanities of the University of Edinburgh.
