Question

Read the excerpt from Pericles's funeral oration by Thucydides. Again, in questions of general good feeling there is a great contrast between us and most other people. We make friends by doing good to others, not by receiving good from them. This makes our friendship all the more reliable, since we want to keep alive the gratitude of those who are in our debt by showing continued good-will to them. We are unique in this. When we do kindnesses to others, we do not do them out of any calculations of profit or loss: we do them without afterthought, relying on our free liberality. Taking everything together then, I declare that our city is an education to Greece, and I declare that in my opinion each single one of our citizens, in all the manifold aspects of life, is able to show himself the rightful lord and owner of his own person, and do this, moreover, with exceptional grace and exceptional versatility.

Answer 1

Pericles's funeral oration extols the virtues of Athenian democracy and how its freedom and equal justice contribute to the happiness and flourishing of its citizens, paralleled by later philosophical discussions on virtue, politics, and the just society.

Step-by-step explanation:

The excerpt from Pericles's funeral oration, as recorded by Thucydides, reflects the values of Athenian society during its Golden Age and emphasizes the importance of freedom and democracy in achieving human flourishing or eudaimonia. Pericles highlights that Athenian happiness stems from the freedom and equality of its governance system. The Athenians believed in doing good without expecting anything in return, cultivating friendships based on good character rather than utility or pleasure, which Aristotle later described in his Nicomachean Ethics. The ideals of a just society presented in Plato's Republic, where individuals contribute to the needs of the community, mirror the values that Pericles articulates. Furthermore, the practices of engaging in politics and investing in community life that Pericles advocated are paralleled in the contemporary context of representative democracy.