Aristotle on political science. Aristotle's Political Science 2023-01-03
Aristotle on political science Rating:
7,7/10
1772
reviews
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath who lived in the 4th century BCE. He was a student of Plato and a tutor of Alexander the Great, and his works on a wide range of subjects have had a lasting influence on Western thought. Among his many contributions to the fields of philosophy, politics, and science, Aristotle is perhaps most well-known for his ideas on political science, which he explored in depth in his work Politics.
In Politics, Aristotle sets out to define the nature of the good life and the ideal society in which it can be achieved. He begins by positing that man is a political animal, meaning that humans naturally desire to live in a community and participate in the political process. For Aristotle, the ultimate goal of politics is the promotion of the common good, or the welfare of the community as a whole.
Aristotle believed that the best form of government is one that is based on the rule of law and promotes the common good. He argued that the best form of government is a constitutional monarchy, in which a king or queen holds the highest office but is subject to the rule of law and the will of the people. Aristotle also believed that the best form of government is one that is mixed, meaning that it combines elements of both monarchy and democracy.
Aristotle was also a strong believer in the importance of education and the role it plays in shaping the character of citizens and the overall health of a society. He argued that education should be universal and that it should focus on cultivating virtue and wisdom in citizens. He believed that education should be geared towards producing good citizens who are capable of participating in the political process and contributing to the common good.
In addition to his ideas on the ideal form of government and the importance of education, Aristotle also wrote extensively on the concept of justice. He argued that justice is an essential element of any good society and that it should be based on the principle of fairness. He believed that justice requires that individuals be treated equally and that they receive what they are due based on their merit and their contribution to the community.
In conclusion, Aristotle's ideas on political science have had a lasting impact on Western thought and continue to be relevant and influential today. His belief in the importance of the common good, the rule of law, education, and justice as essential elements of a well-functioning society have shaped the way we think about politics and the role it plays in our lives.
Aristotle on the politeia and its role in his political science.
The function peculiar to humans is their life of reason. Prephilosophic ancient man could not see or understand himself as uniquely human as long as the only ones with individuality were gods or men who were nearly gods. Aristotle is known as the father of political science as he contributed significantly to the field of political philosophy, social philosophy, and economic philosophy. Much of this book merely enlarged upon the theory of household government, including economics, and recapitulated the distinction between this and political rule. Aristotle distinguishes several types of rule, based on the nature of the soul of the ruler and of the subject.
And given the very strangeness in its very name—one would expect some clarification would be given—but in Book 3 of the Politics, none is given. He believes that for the state as well as for the individuals, the best life lies in the pursuit of virtue rather than of power and wealth. After the account of the variations of the democratic politeia, the next chapter he then presents the variations of the oligarchic politeia. The state is still to realize its true meaning as a factor in a civilized life and the discovery of this meaning is therefore still of vital importance. Amazon, the Amazon logo, Amazon Supply, and the Amazon Supply logo are trademarks of Amazon. When people believe that they can and should control theses things, then there is trouble.
Aristotle’s Political Theory (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Furthermore, humans naturally act towards selfish and barbaric interests and are unfit to rule themselves as demonstrated in natural lawless states such as the Plagued Athens or the Corcyrean Civil War. The family, Aristotle says, is prior in time but the state is prior by nature; that is, it is the more completely developed and therefore the more indicative of what the community has implicit in it. Nothing short of the harmonious development of all sides of human nature can be accepted as a satisfactory standard. And this is as true about the rule of the poor or the vulgar the demos —that if the few poor or vulgar ruled over a political community its rule would be democratic in character. Another focus of research has been the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes including studies of his theory of equality, obligation, democracy, tyranny, mixed government, natural law, and the rationality of justice ; he co-edited The Oxford Handbook of Hobbes 2016. But, ultimately, the city-state is composed of individual citizens see III. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Maryland: Rowman and Little field Publishers, Inc. For example, Book IV explicitly notes the utility of examining actual regimes Jaeger's "empirical" focus in determining the best regime Jaeger's "Platonic" focus. Now here is where what she does here is do different from her other writing and so much more akin to the kind of scholarly analysis done by Seth Benardete than any of the scholars she worked with throughout her career. Yet, ok she did this to conform to expectations of political scientists who were offering her the degree this work was originally produced to obtain. This is what is called the city-state or political community.
The highest good is eudaemonia, or both excessive repression and excessive indulgence. But in both instances, the demos eventually rose against the aristocracy. Political science or politicology is the academic study of politics. It may sometimes be better to leave defective laws in place rather than encouraging lawlessness by changing the laws too frequently. Each of these branches may be organized democratically or oligarchical, or more or less democratically or oligarchical. But since the ideal conditions do not exist for an ideal state, one should think of the best attainable only.
An Introduction to the Political Theory of Aristotle
When he deals with a difficult problem, he is inclined to consider opposing arguments in a careful and nuanced manner, and he is often willing to concede that there is truth on each side. One would think you were reading Benardete, who was held in very high regard by leading professional classicists, who had little like of or respect for what Leo Strauss and his students were up to with Greek texts. Where such a body of citizen exists they form a group large enough to give the state a popular foundation, disinterested enough to hold the magistrates responsible and select enough to avoid the evils of government by the masses Upon such a social foundation it is possible to build a political structure drawing upon institutions typical of both democracy and oligarchy. A higher stage of development is represented by the village, which is a union of several families, and a still higher by the state, which is a union of villages. Commentary on Aristotle's Politics. When Alexander died suddenly, Aristotle had to flee from Athens because of his Macedonian connections, and he died soon after. Aristotle's Politics: Critical Essays.
He founded the school Lyceum. Like a true scientist he does not attempt any impossible scheme in formulating his theory if Ideal State. This source is useful as it provides insight into the laws and rules of ancient Greece at the time this helped in the understanding of the ancient Greek society and what Athens And Sparta Democracy Vs Dictatorship Case Study 893 Words 4 Pages In Athenian society there was a sort of democracy, the first in recorded history, but political rights and the power to vote was held by a relatively small group. He gave merit to tradition and custom. IX , Ethica Eudemia, J. For instance, Aristotle mentions a law in Cyme that allows an accuser to produce a number of his own relatives as witnesses to prove that a defendant is guilty of murder.
For a further discussion of this topic, see the following supplementary document: 2. The City and Man. In order to answer these questions we must refer to what Aristotle says about precision. Plato is the literary genius, the impassioned advocate, the brilliant dialectician, his vision is clear……. He has written on ancient, renaissance, and early modern political thought.
The good life involves the harmonious development of the normal functions of the organism. The almost cynical freedom with which Aristotle advises the tyrant presages Machiavelli. The constitution is not a written document, but an immanent organizing principle, analogous to the soul of an organism. Thus the end of government is seen to be the preservation of rights as opposed to justice, order, or the common good. Further, he defines the city-state in the unqualified sense as a multitude of such citizens which is adequate for a self-sufficient life 1275b20—21.
In fact, all the terms of importance in the practical works belong to political life itself. Aristotle also adds still a third analysis of states into social classes, or united groups smaller than the state itself, such as families, or the rich and poor, or occupational groups such as farmers, artisans and merchants. Aristotle regards struggle to make ideal state as waste of time. Unfortunately in the Politics he does not consider as systematically as might have been expected the differences between household relations other than slavery, for example, the relation between the head of a household and his wife, which he believed to be different in kind both from his relation to a slave and from the relations of a political ruler to his subjects. A Companion to Aristotle's Politics.
