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## The Political Welfare: Theory and Practice in Ancient Greek Thought, From the Origins to Socrates

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Lefka Aikaterini. The Political Welfare: Theory and Practice in Ancient Greek Thought, From the Origins to Socrates. In: Dialogues d'histoire ancienne, vol. 48, n°2, 2022. pp. 95-115.

DOI : 10.3917/dha.482.0095

www.persee.fr/doc/dha_0755-7256_2022_num_48_2_5253

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DHA, 48/ 2, 2022 – CC-BY Dialogues d’ histoire ancienne, 48/ 2, 2022, 95‑115 – CC-BY

The Political Welfare: Theory and Practice in Ancient Greek Thought, From the Origins to Socrates1

Aikaterini Lefka Université de Liège, Belgique Aikaterini. Lefka@ uliege. be

### Introduction

It is quite common in the history of Western political philosophy to consider that its origins are found in Plato’s and Aristotle’s extended works on the subject. However, between the seventh and the fifth century B. C., there were thinkers, from the so-called “ Seven Sages” up to Socrates, who expressed interesting political ideas (although their theories arrived to us only in fragments and, for the greatest part, indirectly). Moreover, many of them participated actively in the public life in various ways, being preoccupied especially by the crucial question: which is the best way to achieve the city’s eudaimonia, or eu zen, the ideal and stable welfare of all its members? In my paper, I propose first to remind shortly the particularities of the notion of eudaimonia for the ancient Greeks. Then I’ll give some representative examples of the Presocratics’ and Socrates’ theoretical and/ or practical contributions in the city’s “ good life”, according to five different possibilities of action that I could distinguish. I believe that, in spite of all the cited differences in the ways of these thinkers to approach politics, there are common points among most of their positions that may be detected. In the final part of my paper I shall depict some of them. I hope that this analysis will not only shed some more light on the richness and the importance of the political theories and practices of the ancient Greek thinkers

1 I would like to dedicate the present article to my Professors, Ευάγγελος Μουτσόπουλος and André Motte, who both left for the “ Isles of the Blessed” in 2021. They will always be remembered with admiration, gratitude and affection, as true “ spiritual fathers” and dear friends.