Study On The Concept Of "Good Citizen" In Ancient Athens In The Classical Era

In the world of Hellenic city-states,the design of city-states law and political system was significantly affected by the type of citizen that city-states need and citizen’s “good citizen” notion.The Greek classical era was also the “Golden age” of Athenian poleis,during this period,Athens developed the classical democracy,which triggered the “ Golden age” of Athenian ideologists,it also differentiated Athenians’ comprehension about citizen and “good citizen” from other Greeks,thus formed the concept of Athenian “good citizen”.The concept of Athenian “good citizen” was not only demonstrated among polis,but also existed in the theoretical world of Athenian philosophers.There was a connotative imparity between the implement of Athenian “good citizen” concept and the ideal notion of “good citizen” by Athenian philosophers;however both methods of shaping the “good citizen” were consistent,they emphasized the significance of regulating citizens by the law and promoting civic education combine with jurisprudence and education.Therefore,in order to explore its shaping methods,it is necessary to clarify the connotation and origins of the Athenian “good citizen”concept.The first part illustrates the definition of Athenian citizen.It starts from two perspectives,which are the legal and political design of Athenian poleis as well as the Greek drama and philosophy.The first perspective are the development and evolution of citizenship and civic rights,which are based on relevant historical materials of poleis’ political systems and laws.The second perspective is on the basis of dramatists and philosophers’ citizen notion about existing works of drama and philosophy.The second part focuses on the core discussion of this paper,which is the connotation of the Athenians’ “good citizen” concept during classical era.The comprehension about the “good citizen” varies from actual poleis to ideal poleis by philosophers: The imperfection of actual poleis made the core concept of “good citizen”,despite of the period of war and peace,it must be judged by the contribution to the polis,and it shall be centralized by poleis.And It is impossible to unify the“good citizen” in ideal poleis with the “perfect man” idea in Greek world because of its perfect design in the ideal polis.The third part mainly discusses the means which are used by poleis to form such a good citizen under the influence of the Athenian concept of "good citizen".No matter the actual poleis or the paragon polis in philosophers’ conceptual world,they all advocate the combination of law and education to shape the “good citizen”,regulate citizens’ behavior with the system of rewards and punishments,and promote the unification of the citizen group.At the same time,the polis promotes civic education guided by the concept of “good citizen” by compulsory approaches.For example,the civic rights is deprived due to the absence of participating in civic education.The conclusion part is a summary of the connotation and solution of the "good citizen" concept of Athens in the classical era.The concept of "good citizenship" formed by the reality of the Athens city-state is inevitably based on the origin and purpose of the actual city-state,and thus a realistic Athens-style "good citizen" finds a balance between the city-state public life and the private life.Public life and city-state interests are placed before their own private lives,and in private life,they also need to have "private moral." The ideal city-states established by the Athens philosophers in the world of ruling,because the city-states were created for the "highest good" and abandoned the utilitarian purpose of the real city-state,so in this ideal city-state "" "good Citizens" should be the "perfect man" who do not carry any kindness,and the key to such "perfect man" is a person who fully guides his activities with reason.The two worlds complement each other in create the "good citizenship".They all emphasize the role of law and the role of education,and combine the means of regulation with educational methods to shape "good citizens." The understanding of the Athenian concept of "good citizen" is also beneficial to the understanding of the Western world and Western legal traditions.