Solon the Thinker: Political Thought in Archaic Athens John Lewis In Solon the Thinker , John Lewis presents the hypothesis that Solon saw Athens as a self-governing, self-supporting system akin to the early Greek conceptions of the cosmos. Solon's polis functions neither by divine intervention nor the force of a tyrant, but by its own natural, self-governing internal energy. An orderly, understandable polis is founded on the intellectual health of its people, depends upon their acceptance of justice and moderation as orderly norms of life, and leads to the rejection of tyranny and slavery in favour of freedom under written laws. Solon is the thinker and teacher who conceives this ideal for Athens. But Solon's views of order are limited; each person on his own life is subject to the arbitrary foibles of moirathe inscrutable fate that governs human life, and brings us to an unknowable but inevitable death. Solon represents both the new rational, scientific spirit that was sweeping the Aegean and a return to the fatalism that permeated Greek cultural life. He deserves credit not only as a poet and a lawgiver, but as a thinker who was at the cutting edge of an intellectual revolution. John Lewis is Assistant Professor of History, Department of History and Political Science, Ashland University, Ohio.