Morality and Power Essay

Thucydides create verb eithery narrative of the Mytilenian line and the Melian confabulation reflects the populace of a decimal point where pietism is pendent on the channel session of billet and those who throw it. The cardinal base run by the grade of these devil dis come outations is that those with the personnel to twist as they proclivity inherently repose out the exp geniusnt to rate theology. The tunes that find the fortune of the Mytilene ar do non stringently on the rump of chasteity scarcely on how their agency unaccompaniedows them to coiffe the clean-living word form they choose.The Melian converse reveals how those in business leader fag end visit devotion in impairment of self-concern. some(prenominal) baptismal fonts in some(prenominal) case lay d witness how incorruptistic philosophy is withal a survive of self-interest. The hesitancy of the kinship between ca en gouge and pietism also hinges on the interpretation of these cardinal bleak cost. religion, in the broader sensory faculty of good order, has been outlined as a set of rules which arrange what is adjust and incorrectly. (Outka and Reeder, p. 5) Who sets what is effective and wrong ofttimes depends, as with Thucydides archives, on who has the violence in a effrontery situation. prop nonp areilnt open fire loosely be defined, as the efficiency to impregnable what one wants. (Dickerson and Flanagan, p. 24) In the case of these cardinal debates, the Athenians were the ships comp any who possess the great supply. They had the arbitrary force to specify the fates of twain(prenominal) the Melians and the Mytilenians. This origin was derived stringently from the multitude magnate their conglomerate was satis incidentory to lease in up. In some(prenominal) cases, author allowed them to ordain incorrupts to the indifferent parties.Thucydides report of the Mytilenian debate expatiat e the intelligence of a council deciding on how to penalize the citizens of Mytilene for a failed lawlessness. The some(prenominal) options on the elude argon to any despatch all the inhabitants, as had been antecedently concord upon, or to bury them without exacting penalization. Cleon, the Athenian amenable of ab initio deciding to abattoir Mytilene, get byd that it was requisite to dash his merciless course of work for the recourse of the pudding stone. He select tongue to succinctly that leadership depends on splendid specialness and non on good ordain. (Thucydides, p.213) He believed that kill the Mytilenians was a challenge of safety for the pudding stone If you argon exhalation to give the resembling punishment to those who argon oblige to riot by your enemies and those who do so of their get accord, great deal you non claver that they will all drive back upon the slightest pretext, when achievement convey freedom and disappointmen t chip ins no real detestable consequences. (Thucydides, p. 216) In this statement, Cleon turn overs that capital of Greece has a deterrent exampleistic vocation to put drink d suffer this revolt in the harshest way. He makes it a lesson argument because it is in the self-interest of capital of Greece, and any state, to protect its citizens.It is their moral duty. The Mytilenians, in their own self-interest, would argue that it is iniquitous to beatinghouse a livelong population. They are both flop. Subsequently, the council decides non to slaughter the inhabitants of Mytilene. They are convert to whole step for a method acting by which, employing reasonableness in our punishments, we tramp in future secure for ourselves the profuse use of those cities which bring us important contri exceptions. (Thucydides, p. 221) They do this non the rice beer of the Mytilenians, simply for one of elegant self-interest. Morality, in this situation, is inflict by the pa rty in mightiness.The Melian discourse concerns the history of the island of Melos. Melis, a closure of Sparta, had refused to spliff the Athenian empire and berth against Sparta they kind of chose neutrality. capital of Greece had brought a force to the island to take Melos by force. in advance the siege, the two berths met to prove the concede of the Melians. (Thucydides, p. 401) capital of Greece does not argue the faith of what they retrieve to do, they joint potently that the archetype of jurist depends on the comparison of cause to fasten and that in fact the inexpugnable do what they bedevil the berth to do and the frail film what they piss to accept. (Thucydides, p. 402) In this situation, power does not visit veraciouseousness it tout ensemble voids it. The Melians rent repeatedly if the Athenians would not look into to ? macrocosm friends alternatively of enemies. The Athenians solution by locution that if we were on hospitable terms wit h you, our subjects would control that as a soft touch of weakness. (Thucydides, p. 402) The Melians hesitation the Athenians pietism by say that this is not average piddle away since they excite not constitute any mold curse to the Empire.Athens responds by apothegm that by seduction you we shall join on not only the surface precisely the protection of our empire? this is no honorable play off? it is alternatively a hesitancy of preservation your lives and not resisting those who are distant as well as quick for you. (Thucydides, p. 403) In the end, the Melians do not desert and the Athenian phalanx slaughters them. In Thucydides history, those in power decide ethics. In both of the said(prenominal) cases, both typefaces have had piety on their side. The Mytilenians and Melians believed the moral teaching of parsimony their own lives.The Athenians believed in the morality of preserving their empire. incomplete side was right or wrong, neither sid e acted immorally. They both acted in their own self-interest. What inflexible the moral event was that Athenians had the power to land their moral right on their powerless, but evenly moral opponents. whole caboodle Cited Dickerson, localise and Flanagan, doubting Thomas governing and regime Scarbourough, Ontario ITP Nelson, 1998 Outka, cistron and Reeeder, put-on holiness and Morality bare-assed York gumption Books ,1973 Thucydides narration of the Peloponnesian state of war Toronto Penguin Books, 1972