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Full Idea
The 'Eumenides' of Aeschylus tells how the old rule of revenge and blood feud was replaced by a due process of law before a civil jury.
Gist of Idea
The 'Eumenides' of Aeschylus shows blood feuds replaced by law
Source
report of Aeschylus (The Eumenides [c.458 BCE]) by A.C. Grayling - What is Good? Ch.2
Book Ref
Grayling,A.C.: 'What is Good? The Best Way to Live' [Phoenix 2003], p.18
A Reaction
Compare Idea 1659, where this revolution is attributed to Protagoras (a little later than Aeschylus). I take the rule of law and of society to be above all the rule of reason, because the aim is calm objectivity instead of emotion.
Related Ideas
Idea 1659 Protagoras seems to have made the huge move of separating punishment from revenge [Protagoras, by Vlastos]
Idea 7340 Mosaic law was the first to embody the rule of law, and equality before the law [Johnson,P]
| 22824 | Magna Carta forbids prison without trial, and insists on neutral and correct process [-, by Charvet] |
| 422 | The people should fight for the law as if for their city-wall [Heraclitus] |
| 7810 | The 'Eumenides' of Aeschylus shows blood feuds replaced by law [Aeschylus, by Grayling] |
| 22551 | Correct law should be in control, with rulers only deciding uncertain issues [Aristotle] |
| 22554 | It is said that we should not stick strictly to written law, as it is too vague [Aristotle] |
| 2827 | It is preferable that law should rule rather than any single citizen [Aristotle] |
| 19891 | Rule of law is superior to autonomy, because citizens can see what is expected [Hooker,R] |
| 22827 | Justice superior to the rule of law is claimed on behalf of the workers, or the will of the nation [Charvet] |
| 22823 | The rule of law is mainly to restrict governments [Charvet] |
| 22825 | The 1689 Bill of Rights denied the monarch new courts, or the right to sit as judge [Charvet] |
| 22826 | From 1701 only parliament could remove judges, whose decisions could not be discussed [Charvet] |
| 22828 | The rule of law mainly benefits those with property and liberties [Charvet] |