This semester, while studying (Lorenzetti), Euripides, Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle and Aquinas the following concepts have been debated:
Virtue/Ethics          Common Good      Justice/Law           Happiness/Peace            Polity/State 
Citizen/the Individual   Equality       Leadership     Power/Authority        Poverty           Reason           
Intertwined within these debates are the underpinnings of modern conceptions of democracy, both positive and negative. At their core, there is a supposition that it is impossible for an individual to flourish without an attachment to a political community. Nevertheless, the political community demands deep individual sacrifice. Given these precepts, there are key questions to consider. For example: if the concept of civic virtue, while providing the resources necessary to create a polity, nevertheless entail an inherent tension between those forces reconciling the pull toward the common good and those that simultaneously pull away from the common good? Furthermore, is there a distinction between civic virtue and the Divine? And how do these ideas play into the different philosophic perceptions of what creates peace and harmony within a political community, as well as what constitutes the citizen?
To complete this exam, you must do the following:
Select a meaningful combination of at least 5 (3 if you discuss each of them IN DEPTH) of the terms listed above
Construct an argument where you consider the terms chosen comparatively according to how the various antiquity philosophers discussed this semester (Euripides, Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle and Aquinas) approach these concepts and how they, when combined, have culminated in western political thought as witnessed in contemporary political debate.
To underpin your argument(s), you need to have selected at least 2 quotes (and/or definition)from each philosopher pertaining to the terms chosen.