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11-06-2015, 04:18

FURTHER READING

For a full discussion of negative liberty as nondependence in Athens, and of the difference between this conception and the ways in which individual liberty is generally construed in the modern world, see Edge 2006 and forthcoming. On ‘‘rights’’ in ancient Greece, see Rhodes 1979 as a useful introduction. There are a number of important articles in Ober and Hedrick 1996, particularly the papers by Wallace and Ostwald. Ober 2005a is another important, and controversial, paper looking into the notion of rights in classical Athens, taking a very different perspective from the one we have adopted here and including an interesting and timely discussion on the rights of noncitizens in Athens. Another controversial and engaging work, F. Miller 1995, argues for the presence of subjective rights in Aristotle and has initiated a lively debate on the subject. We have, in this essay, focused primarily on rights in relation to ancient communities (or, more correctly, a particular ancient community) rather than philosophy, so it has not been our purpose to comment on Miller and the literature he has generated. This is not to dismiss the importance of Miller - far from it. Instead, as the last pages hope to illustrate, we aim to provide a slightly different way of conceptualizing individual liberty, as well as looking at the problem of (what we moderns call) ‘‘rights’’ from a different perspective by considering a neglected stream of (Athenian) thought. A good place to start with the responses to Miller’s stimulating contribution to the subject of rights is Schofield 1999.

The literature surrounding contemporary questions and issues of rights is unsurprisingly vast, and there are many contested aspects. Waldron 1993, written by one of the most important thinkers on rights in contemporary political philosophy, is a good starting point. The essays in Waldron 1984 are a useful way into a number of issues relating to rights and moral philosophy, especially the important contributions by Hart, Mackie, Dworkin, and Vlastos. Dworkin 1987 is a very influential - and readable - defense by a heavyweight political and legal thinker of the theory and practice of rights. See also the literature cited in note 1 below for an introduction to (some of the) further debates on the problem of rights. Hohfeld 2001, dating from 1919, remains influential despite its age and can still frequently be found cited in much of the contemporary literature on rights.



 

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