Might makes right thucydides biography
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Might makes right
View that morality is, or ought to be, determined by those in power
For other uses, see Might makes right (disambiguation).
"Might is right" redirects here. For the book, see Might Is Right.
"Might makes right" or "might is right" is an aphorism that asserts that those who hold power are the origin of morality, and they control a society's view of right and wrong.[1][2][3]Montague defined kratocracy or kraterocracy (from the Ancient Greek: κράτος, romanized:&#;krátos, lit.&#;'might; strength') as a government by those strong enough to seize control through violence or deceit.[4]
"Might makes right" has been described as the credo of totalitarian regimes.[5] The sociologist Max Weber analyzed the relations between a state's power and its moral authority in Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Realist scholars of international politics use the phrase to describe the "state of nature" in which power determines the relations among sovereign states.[6]
History
[edit]The idea, though not the wording, has been attributed to the History of the Peloponnesian War, written around BC by the ancient historian Thucydides, who stated that "right, as the world goes, is only in question b
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Does Might Make Right? Individuals, Ethics, and Exceptionalism
Like many new professors of international relations, my early career syllabi often included Thucydides’ Melian dialogue from the History of the Peloponnesian War. In the fifth century B.C., the great sea power Athens demanded that the small island of Melos, an ally of Sparta, lay down its arms and become a vassal of the Athenian empire. The Melians thought this both unjust and unwise — why not simply allow Melos to remain neutral? Wasn’t it immoral to force a free people who posed no threat to relinquish their independence? The leaders of Athens were unmoved. “Since you know as well as we do that right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.” When the Melians refused to surrender, the Athenians conquered the island, and “put to death all the grown men whom they took, and sold the women and children for slaves, and subsequently sent out five hundred colonists and inhabited the place themselves.”1
I taught this dialogue to demonstrate to young, presumably idealistic students that the world was a dangerous place, where military power was the critical variable, and the most important outcomes in the world, such as war and
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Imposing an fictitious simplicity ire Thucydides’s disused makes event harder support understand rendering full extent of warnings that his history gives.
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