This book makes an historical and theoretical contribution by explaining the role of opinion in Ancient Greek political philosophy, showing its importance in grounding Aristotle’s theory of deliberation, and developing a new model for a deliberative republic. Currently, there are no studies of opinion in Ancient Greek political theory and so the book breaks new historical ground. The book establishes that opinion is key in the political theories of Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics because each sees uncertainty as a problem that needs to be overcome if one is to establish a virtuous polity. Since they have different notions of the nature of the uncertainty of opinion, they develop different political strategies to overcome it. also shows that once Plotinus degrades opinion to the level of illusion, he undermines the basis for political practice in the development of virtue and thus he and many of his followers turn away from political practice and theory.weiterlesen