Guest Lecturer Susan Collins - How a Political Theorist Talks about Ancient Politics: The Case of Sparta

Professor Susan Collins of the Notre Dame Political Science Department is presenting in the first of four guest lectures in a series, "How to Talk about (Ancient) Politics". This series is presented with the help of funding from the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts.

Contemporary theorists who study ancient politics understandably focus on the democratic city of Athens. Yet thinkers and politicians of earlier eras admired the eunomia or good order of the Spartan politeia, even elevating a highly stylized version of it as the model of the best constitution or regime. This talk outlines the case for this earlier view as well as the significance of the critique of Sparta for classical political philosophy.

More information on Professor Collins can be found here.