The Power and Politics of Ontology

Abstract

Readers of Thucydides come to the History with a variety of pre-occupations and purposes. Notwithstanding their differences, modern readers converge in the belief that Thucydides offers crucial ontological insights. These universally valid truths about human nature and the nature of politics constitute one reason why the text is a possession for all time. That these permanent Thucydidean truths have consequences for contemporary judgments about the good, the right, and the useful explains why the text is a possession for our time.