Josiah Ober’s Followers (35)

Josiah Ober

Born

February 27, 1953

Genre

History, Classics

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Josiah Ober is Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis Professor in honor of Constantine Mitsotakis, and Professor of Classics and Political Science, at Stanford University.

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Josiah Ober’s books

Average rating: 3.75 · 5,095 ratings · 392 reviews · 37 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece 3.93 avg rating — 304 ratings — published 2015 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens: Rhetoric, Ideology, and the Power of the People 3.73 avg rating — 48 ratings — published 1989 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Threshold of Democracy: Athens in 403 BCE by Josiah Ober, Naomi J. Norman, Mark C. Carnes 3.37 avg rating — 46 ratings — published 2013 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Political Dissent in Democratic Athens: Intellectual Critics of Popular Rule. 4.14 avg rating — 35 ratings — published 1998 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Democracy and Knowledge: Innovation and Learning in Classical Athens 4.15 avg rating — 27 ratings — published 2008 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Demopolis: Democracy before Liberalism in Theory and Practice 3.38 avg rating — 24 ratings — published 2019 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Athenian Revolution 3.71 avg rating — 17 ratings — published 1996 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Demokratia 3.88 avg rating — 8 ratings — published 1996 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Greeks and the Rational: The Discovery of Practical Reason (Sather Classical Lectures) (Volume 76) 3.80 avg rating — 5 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Athenian Legacies: Essays on the Politics of Going On Together 2.60 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 2005 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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“We now have a theory of effective collective action with decentralized authority. The theory is based on a conception of human nature as at once social, interdependent, justice-seeking, self-interested, and strategic. That conception is consistent with contemporary social science and with ancient Greek thought. The theory explains (through a mix of ideology, federalism, “altruistic” punishment, and existential threats) individual motivation to cooperate in the absence of a unitary sovereign as third-party enforcer. It provides (through information exchange) a mechanism that enables many individuals to accomplish common goals and to produce public goods without requiring orders from a master.”
― Josiah Ober, The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece

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“Fair rules and competition within a marketlike ecology of states promoted capital investment, innovation, and rational cooperation in a context of low transaction costs.”
― Josiah Ober, The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece

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“[The “Platonic pond ant” thought experiment] suggests there is nothing preternatural about the efflorescence of the decentralized world of the Greek city-states. I would suggest, as a working hypothesis to be tested in the chapters to come, that the ancient Greeks reproduced the ants’ process of successful decentralized organization through constantly reiterated information exchange.... It this information-centered hypothesis is right, the key to effective decentralized human cooperation in the context of a state is enabling a wide variety of valuable (at a minimum: accurate and pertinent) information to be exchanged with great frequency by the residents of the state. The hypothesis would be falsified, of course, if, relative to central-authority systems, citizen-centered Greek poleis tended to discourage information exchange.”
― Josiah Ober, The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece

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Josiah Ober’s Followers (35)

Josiah Ober

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Josiah Ober’s books