Re: John Dunn, Moses Finley, the history of political thought

This sounds fascinating. A couple of years ago I directed a senior honors thesis by an exceptionally gifted student. Her topic was "transitional justice," the ways a society recovers from grave trauma. As a double major in Classics and Government, she wrote about Athens after the rule of the 30 and Rwanda after the Hutu / Tutsi genocide. It was remarkably sophisticated and earned well-deserved high honors in both departments. To echo Dan's praise of cross-disciplinary studies, it's  heartening to know that such fine work is being done.


Andrew Szegedy-Maszak
Professor of Classical Studies
Jane A. Seney Professor of Greek
Wesleyan University
Middletown, CT  06459
ph: 860.685.2065
fax: 860.685.2089
________________________________
From: DANIEL P. Tompkins <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, May 5, 2019 2:24 AM
To: Classical Greek and Latin Discussion Group; dg
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: John Dunn, Moses Finley, the history of political thought

I just attended a fine celebration of the work of John Dunn, Cambridge political scientist who's worked on democratic theory and practice (e.g. in Ghana) for half a century.  Very good speakers, including Dunn himself. There's a lot to say, and I won't say it here.
But it is worth noting that one of Dunn's strengths has been his recognition of the virtues of cross-disciplinary work.  His 1974 book on Ghana, Dependence and Opportunity, was co-authored with an anthropologist and guided by Victor Hugo's dictum, to study the vine from the viewpoint of the grapes (l'arbre vu du côte des racines).  The cross-disciplinarity included ancient studies.  In fact, as he said (roughly transcribed)...:


It all goes back to Michael Cook<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnes.princeton.edu%2Fpeople%2Fmichael-cook&amp;data=02%7C01%7CCLASSICS-L%40lsv.uky.edu%7C87b734896a604dc9891008d6d108a1f1%7C2b30530b69b64457b818481cb53d42ae%7C0%7C1%7C636926232341682043&amp;sdata=FzqrY9Qm2oIFQcj75kD9EOczMIwBVarEdItyN2LCw98%3D&amp;reserved=0>’s persuading me to take Finley’s [high-powered] seminar in my second year as an undergraduate.  This was daring of Cook.  There I learned by example [n.b. from Athenian history] how to think about democracy as a historical reality.

Since then, as Dunn said, he has spent a career trying to understand the spread of democracy around the world.  The topic "surprisingly has not let him go."  This exercise became even more painful with the Brexit vote: who would have expected it?  Yet by far this was the the most consequential political choice ever put before the citizenry.  So, he concluded, there is much to study there, and in the current or coming crisis of the environment.

This insistence on cross-disciplinarity showed when he listed former students including at least two,   Danielle Allen <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FDanielle_Allen&amp;data=02%7C01%7CCLASSICS-L%40lsv.uky.edu%7C87b734896a604dc9891008d6d108a1f1%7C2b30530b69b64457b818481cb53d42ae%7C0%7C1%7C636926232341682043&amp;sdata=u%2FO7E%2BSf51A9l%2FKv4sloEII8dA0IGMdr%2B%2BaoNJGmbSk%3D&amp;reserved=0> and Melissa Lane<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fscholar.princeton.edu%2Fmslane%2Fresearch-interests&amp;data=02%7C01%7CCLASSICS-L%40lsv.uky.edu%7C87b734896a604dc9891008d6d108a1f1%7C2b30530b69b64457b818481cb53d42ae%7C0%7C1%7C636926232341692052&amp;sdata=q%2BViLVjhVnGyeRTHjfqxLpQK8HyUfDSNUUmJVbNCEOc%3D&amp;reserved=0>, for whom classical studies are pivotal.  Lane appeared by long-distance hookup, in fact.

All in all a wonderful event for a wonderful person.  And a very worthwhile affirmation of the importance of ancient studies.

Best,

Dan

After the event he agreed that his attitude was gloomy but upbeat: aware of the problems, but convinced that  we can or must apply our skills to figuring  next best courses.  He