A reading group dedicated to Xenophon’s Hiero
Introduction
Xenophon’s Hiero is a comparatively poorly known text. In it, we see tyranny cast as the form of government which must most directly address the question of its own justification, since it is the only form of government which comes into existence without a constitutional justification of its own. Lacking in inherent legitimacy, it must therefore work to construct itself as justifiable through its own conduct and the relationship it forges with those it governs. This makes the Hiero a particularly useful lens through which to examine modern government, which – since Machiavelli – has also been thought of as having no ready-made justification of its own, and needing therefore to do so through its own exercise of government. The text is direct and easily parsed, but confronts us with unexpected, even startling insights.
Details
The Reading Group on Tyranny and Political Reason will hold a series of online meetings for one hour once every two weeks, beginning on Thursday 5th September 2024 at 1pm GMT, with each meeting concerning a single chapter of the Hiero’s text in two parallel translations (Waterfield and Marchant/Bowersock). In advance of each session the text will be circulated, and participants are invited to read it and come prepared to comment. If you are interested in participating, please email david.mcgrogan@knappfoundation.ac.uk and you will be added to the mailing list.
The Reading Group
The Reading Group on Tyranny and Political Reason is an interdisciplinary collective of scholars interested in the question of the legitimacy of the State in modernity. What is it that justifies the existence of government, given that the justification cannot, in modernity, be theological? Does the justification derive from government’s expertise, or from the fact that it is representative – or from some other reason? These questions (summarised by Michel Foucault as being the essence of ‘political reason’) preoccupied the theorists of the state in early modernity – Machiavelli and Hobbes being the obvious examples. But while we intuit that we have never really had satisfactory answers, we have ceased to address adequately this gap in our thinking, or to consider properly the consequences of our failure. The Reading Group brings together scholars interested in these and related matters through a shared project of regular online meetings at which important texts are read and discussed.
If you would like more information about joining the reading group, please send an email to david.mcgrogan@knappfoundation.ac.uk.