The Greeks and the Rational: The Discovery of Practical Reason by Josiah Ober, Political Science and Classics

Books in Brief

April 28, 2023

The Greeks and the Rational: The Discovery of Practical Reason

The cover of the book The Greeks and the Rational and a photo of its author Josiah Ober — Book image courtesy of University of California Press. Josiah Ober. Photo courtesy of Josiah Ober.

“In this book, Josiah Ober explores how ancient Greek sophists, historians, and philosophers developed sophisticated and systematic ideas about practical reason. At the same time, they recognized its limits—that not every decision can be reduced to mechanistic calculations of optimal outcomes. Ober finds contemporary echoes of this tradition in the application of game theory to political science, economics, and business management. The Greeks and the Rational offers a striking revisionist history with widespread implications for the study of ancient Greek civilization, the history of thought, and human rationality itself.”