Episode Details

Game theory as a mathematical discipline has been around since the Cold War, but as Professor Josiah Ober (The Greeks and the Rational: The Discovery of Practical Reason) points out, its roots stretch back to Socrates, if not before. In this episode, Jacke talks to Professor Ober about the Greek discovery of practical reason - and how literature plays a special role in helping us to understand what the Greeks thought, how they organized their society, and how we might apply those lessons today.

Josiah Ober is Mitsotakis Professor of Political Science and Classics at Stanford University and Senior Fellow (Courtesy) at the Hoover Institution. He is author or editor of eighteen books, including The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece and Demopolis: Democracy before Liberalism in Theory and Practice.

Additional listening suggestions:

• 155 Plato
• 374 Ancient Plays and Contemporary Theater - A New Version of Sopocles' Oedipus Trilogy (with Bryan Doerries)
• 5 Greek Tragedy



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