Aristotle political science. Aristotle’s Political Theory (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) 2023-01-04
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Aristotle was a Greek philosopher who lived in the 4th century BC. He was a student of Plato and later tutored Alexander the Great. Aristotle is known for his contributions to a wide range of subjects, including politics, ethics, metaphysics, biology, and aesthetics. In this essay, we will focus on Aristotle's political science, which was a central part of his philosophical system.
Aristotle believed that the study of politics is a practical science, which means that it is concerned with the way things ought to be rather than the way they are. He believed that politics is concerned with the common good of a community, and that the goal of political science is to understand how to achieve this common good.
According to Aristotle, the best form of government is a constitutional monarchy, in which the king or queen is advised by a council of nobles. He believed that this form of government combines the benefits of monarchy, which is strong and decisive leadership, with the benefits of democracy, which is the participation of the people in the decisions that affect their lives.
Aristotle also believed that the best form of government is one that is based on the principle of distributive justice. This means that the distribution of wealth, power, and opportunities within a society should be based on merit, rather than on factors such as birth or wealth. He argued that a just society is one in which everyone has an equal opportunity to contribute to the common good and to achieve their full potential.
In addition to his views on government, Aristotle also made significant contributions to the study of ethics. He believed that human beings have a natural tendency to seek happiness, and that the best way to achieve happiness is through living a virtuous life. He argued that virtue is a mean between two extremes, and that the goal of ethics is to find the right balance between these extremes.
Aristotle's political science had a significant influence on the development of political thought in the Western tradition. His ideas about government and ethics continue to be studied and debated by philosophers and political scientists today.
Politics (Aristotle)
Voluntary and Involuntary Action. Aristotle returned as a resident alien to Athens, and was a close friend of Antipater, the Macedonian viceroy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977. First, why does a city-state come into being? What four subfields of political science are there? Many people, Aristotle says, are confused about what this means. It has been beneficial in the case of medicine, for example, for it to progress from traditional ways to improved forms of treatment. These controversies cannot be discussed here, but should be mentioned.
Aristotle on the politeia and its role in his political science.
The second-best system typically takes the form of a polity in which citizens possess an inferior, more common grade of virtue or mixed constitution combining features of democracy, oligarchy, and, where possible, aristocracy, so that no group of citizens is in a position to abuse its rights. We will not examine them closely, but it is worth observing that Aristotle regards campaigning for office as a potentially dangerous source of conflict. As it turns out, however fine these regimes are in theory, they cannot be put into practice, and this is obviously reason enough not to adopt them. Someone who is not living a life that is virtuous, or morally good, is also not living a happy life, no matter what they might think. Therefore, as a practical matter, regardless of the arguments for or against it, slavery was not going to be abolished in the Greek world. . We must figure out how to live together for ourselves through the use of reason and speech, discovering justice and creating laws that make it possible for human community to survive and for the individuals in it to live virtuous lives.
Since it governs the other practical sciences, their ends serve as means to its end, which is nothing less than the human good. He was moved by a tyrant and the tyrant is the person who had raped him at a time that he was most vulnerable. But Aristotle believes that you would also, as part of your description, have to say that it is made to cut things. Note again the contrast with modern Western nation-states where there are very few opportunities to participate directly in politics and most people struggle to avoid serving on juries. Edited by Stephen Everson. In Chapter 5 of Book VI he offers further advice that would move the city in the direction of polity when he discusses how wealth should be handled in a democracy. Granted that government ought to be carried on by wise and virtuous rulers, where must you lodge power to get wisdom and virtue, or at least the best available approximation to them? Aristotle maintains that man is born without his own consent so that his ideas are there involuntarily and his habits are under those who cause him to make them.
The courage, justice, and prudence of a city have the same power and form as those human beings share in individually who are called just, prudent, and sound. This did not mean that Aristotle turned to description alone. Bartlett and Susan D. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. A Companion to Aristotle's Politics. A good basic translation. For example, a democracy that is based on the farming element will be different than a democracy that is based on the element that is engaged in commerce, and similarly there are different kinds of oligarchies.
Aristotle: Aristotle As The Father Of Political Science
Nothing short of the harmonious development of all sides of human nature can be accepted as a satisfactory standard. In this way, both groups will serve on juries and power will be shared. Learn More Introduction Aristotle, in his Nicomachean Ethics, wrote the first systematic treatise on ethics. The translation is that of Martin Ostwald; see the bibliography for full information. If we want to understand what something is, it must be understood in terms of that end, which we can discover through careful study. The sketch of an ideal state, begun in Books VII and VIII, was apparently never finished, which is significant, especially if it be correct to suppose that these books belong to the earlier draft of the Politics.
[Solved] 5. The specifically political knowledge held by Aristotle's...
However, two important points should be noted here. He will do this again on a more theoretical level in Books IV-VI. Rule by all the male citizens referred to as democracy, which is regarded as Greeks greatest contribution to modern day civilization Democracy. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Aristotle makes this point several times in the Politics: see, for example, VII. Nam risus ante, dapibus a molestie consequat, ultrices ac magna.
So the study of politics will only be useful to those who have the experience and the mental discipline to benefit from it, and for Aristotle this would have been a relatively small percentage of the population of a city. The good citizen today is asked to follow the laws, pay taxes, and possibly serve on juries; these are all good things the good man or woman would do, so that the good citizen is seen as being more or less subsumed into the category of the good person. Disenchanted Realists: Political Science and the American Crisis, 1884-1984. The classification is same as given by Plato in the Statesman. What he does i¢ to write a book not on an ideal state but upon the ideals of the state. He returned to Athens when the city had become Macedonian protectorate. Nam lacinia pulvinar tortor nec facilisis.
An Introduction to the Political Theory of Aristotle
The choice of such a policy was directly contrary to everything that he must have taught his royal pupil about politics. Albany: State University of New York Press. If as is the case with most existing city-states the population lacks the capacities and resources for complete happiness, however, the lawgiver must be content with fashioning a suitable constitution Politics IV. Chapter Seven, by D. An existing law may be a vestige of a primitive barbaric practice.
The Athenian system differed from a modern representative democracy in that the citizens were more directly involved in governing. This is a problem because some people are led to pursue wealth without limit, and the choice of such a life, while superficially very attractive, does not lead to virtue and real happiness. Instead, Aristotle uses politeia however it is translated to mean the way the state is organized, what offices there are, who is eligible to hold them, how they are selected, and so forth. While most people today would not agree that nature has a plan for individual human beings, a particular community, or humanity as a whole although many people would ascribe such a plan to a god or gods , Aristotle believes that nature does indeed have such a plan, and human beings have unique attributes that when properly used make it possible for us to fulfill that plan. Someone who does live according to virtue, who chooses to do the right thing because it is the right thing to do, is living a life that flourishes; to borrow a phrase, they are being all that they can be by using all of their human capacities to their fullest. He identifies one sense of justice with virtue as a whole, but specifically in relation to other people.
It includes specifications regarding the population needed, both its amount and character, the territory most suitable in size, nature, and situation. Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and is considered to be the father of Political Science. Aristotle's Criticism of Plato's Republic. There would be another drawback to creating a city in which everything is held in common. Who in the group should get the flute? The case of the wife is not so clear but apparently Aristotle believed that women were too different in nature from men though not necessarily inferior to stand with them on the peculiar footing of equality which alone permits the political relationship. As we have seen, logos means not only speech but also reason.
