Justice and Community, Ancient and Modern

That great byproduct of the scientific enterprise, technology, has opened the way to what we know as globalization, making it easy to abandon thereby the age-old question of what size community is best for the human being and for justice, a question reflected in what Aristotle had to say about the merits (as well as, perhaps, about the limitations) of the polis. Does the opening to globalization mean that we can no longer believe that we can (or even should) ever again control our lives by shaping the communities in which we live? This essay explores this issue drawing for inspiration upon a variety of literary texts, ancient and modern, including works by Shakespeare, Euripides, Aristophanes, and Aeschylus.