Abstract

In this dissertation I treat Thucydides as a philosopher. This in contrast to the more standard approaches to him as an historian or political scientist. My chosen focus is not meant to discredit these other approaches; on the contrary, my aim is to explain how Thucydides remains so important both for history and for political science. I will argue that Thucydides's text has retained its relevance, indeed centrality, through its use of language. ;Although Thucydides's use of language has long been noted to be extraordinary, I have not found it discussed in great philosophical depth. This is not surprising given that most readers are not focused on philosophical issues. That said, there has recently been considerable treatment of Thucydides's work as a piece of literature , and these analyses often relate Thucydides to the language and sensibility argued to be typical of tragedy. Yet tragedy is only discussed very broadly, which is to say that Thucydides is considered tragic because of general thematic and stylistic parallels to the tragedians . The enormous literature on the philosophical import of tragedy, particularly the role of language in tragedy, is not analyzed, much less the manner in which it might relate to Thucydides. In contrast, this dissertation engages with Thucydides through the burgeoning philosophical literature on tragedy and language. ;In so doing I work with a philosophical tradition not often discussed by historians or political scientists . And yet the arguments I make about Thucydides's language are related to those already made by respected traditional scholars of Thucydides. My dissertation thus makes explicit philosophical claims that other scholars have already implied. ;I conclude that time, language, and identity are all interconnected issues in Thucydides. Philosophers often fail to consider the role of time adequately. To philosophers of language, time is usually a distraction from the core meaning of a proposition . I do not believe that time can be excluded from meaning and will offer the working of Thucydides's text as providing a powerful argument against such bracketing of time. Thucydides s text gains its importance not only because time must be incorporated into meaning, but because Thucydides's incorporation of time is self-referential