Da natureza humana e suas paixões: ΟΡΓΗ EM TUCÍDIDES = On Human Nature and Its Passions: ΟΡΓΗ in Thucydides

Abstract

The History of the Peloponnesian War is an eloquent testimony regarding the interest in human psychology, characteristic of the intellectual and literary life of Athens at the end of the 5th century BC. In the search for the causes of the war and for the explanation of its consequences, the historian highlights the determining roleof "human nature" and its precarious balance between reason and passion. But, despite the fact that irrational impulses are often at the origin of the worst decisions, Thucydides does not fail to point to the problematic nature of reason itself, which is also responsible for acts of the greatest inhumanity.