Two poles of one polis or different ways of acquisition of individuality at the dawn of age of classic Greece

Dramatic development of the Greek polis system eventually resulted in the engagement of Ellada in the full-scale internecine Peloponnesus war (431-404 B.C.). This marked the beginning of the stage that is referred to as the crisis of the polis. As paradoxical as it is, it was in the 5 century B. C. when, as many researchers believe, the Greek polis system both culminated and subsequently deteriorated. On the one hand, wars with the Persians fertilized the Greek economy. Apart from the developing craft and trade, certain branches of commodity farming were boosted (e.g., production of wine and oil). On the other hand, this dynamic development of commodity-money relations facilitated the erosion of the fixed attitudes of the Greek society and favoured the expeditious establishment of new attitudes, operational ones. In other words, the decay of thetraditional values of the polis (both aristocratic and democratic ones) was brought about, which eventually led to the predominance of the new values closely connected with pursuit of profit. Erich Fromm calls this behavioural strategy "the modus of possession". Throughout the 5 century B.C. the state policy of the leaders of the Athenian polis initiated social disintegration and facilitated the break-up of traditions. The fact that traditions were breaking up (especially the tradition of the connection with the soil) was so evident, that Thucydides had to justify his fellow-citizens by reference to their character, to their customary aspiration for the new. The new social setup was fixed partly due to the extensive identity crisis generated by the numerous wars, especially by the Peloponnesus war. The predominant modus of possession brought about the new stratum of people who did not have distinct principles, but who were ready nevertheless to do anything to reach their aims. The most prominent representative of this stratum was the Athenian politician Alcibiades. There were those however who would not succumb to their egoism, who tried to find ways to pull the Athenian polis out of the crisis. Among those people were Socrates and his famous disciple Plato. They were the founding fathers of humanism in the antiquity. It is significant that both Plato and Alcibiades were contemporaries and fellow countrymen and belonged to the finest part of the aristocracy. Moreover, Socrates was their mentor. Consequently, it is of special interest to retrace their lives and reveal the factors that pushed them towards different mental poles of the polis

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