INTRODUCTION
The Politics of Aristotle is the second part of a treatise of which
the Ethics is the first part. It looks back to the Ethics as the Ethics
looks forward to the Politics. For Aristotle did not separate, as we are
inclined to do, the spheres of the statesman and the moralist. In the
Ethics he has described the character necessary for the good life, but
that life is for him essentially to be lived in society, and when in the
last chapters of the Ethics he comes to the practical application of his
inquiries, that finds expression not in moral exhortations addressed to
the individual but in a description of the legislative opportunities
of the statesman. It is the legislator's task to frame a society which
shall make the good life possible. Politics for Aristotle is not a
struggle between individuals or classes for power, nor a device for
getting done such elementary tasks as the maintenance of order and
security without too great encroachments on individual liberty. The
state is "a community of well-being in families and aggregations
of families for the sake of a perfect and self-sufficing life." The
legislator is a craftsman whose material is society and whose aim is the
good life.
In an early dialogue of Plato's, the Protagoras, Socrates asks
Protagoras why it is not as easy to find teachers of virtue as it is to
find teachers of swordsmanship, riding, or any other art. Protagoras'
answer is that there are no special teachers of virtue, because virtue
is taught by the whole community. Plato and Aristotle both accept the
view of moral education implied in this answer. In a passage of the
Republic (492 b) Plato repudiates the notion that the sophists have a
corrupting moral influence upon young men. The public themselves,
he says, are the real sophists and the most complete and thorough
educators. No private education can hold out against the irresistible
force of public opinion and the ordinary moral standards of society.
But that makes it all the more essential that public opinion and
social environment should not be left to grow up at haphazard as they
ordinarily do, but should be made by the wise legislator the expression
of the good and be informed in all their details by his knowledge. The
legislator is the only possible teacher of virtue.
Such a programme for a treatise on government might lead us to expect in
the Politics mainly a description of a Utopia or ideal state which
might inspire poets or philosophers but have little direct effect upon
political institutions. Plato's Republic is obviously impracticable, for
its author had turned away in despair from existing politics. He has no
proposals, in that dialogue at least, for making the best of things as
they are. The first lesson his philosopher has to learn is to turn away
from this world of becoming and decay, and to look upon the unchanging
eternal world of ideas. Thus his ideal city is, as he says, a pattern
laid up in heaven by which the just man may rule his life, a pattern
therefore in the meantime for the individual and not for the statesman.
It is a city, he admits in the Laws, for gods or the children of gods,
not for men as they are.
Aristotle has none of the high enthusiasm or poetic imagination of
Plato. He is even unduly impatient of Plato's idealism, as is shown
by the criticisms in the second book. But he has a power to see the
possibilities of good in things that are imperfect, and the patience of
the true politician who has learned that if he would make men what
they ought to be, he must take them as he finds them. His ideal
is constructed not of pure reason or poetry, but from careful and
sympathetic study of a wide range of facts. His criticism of Plato in
the light of history, in Book II. chap, v., though as a criticism it is
curiously inept, reveals his own attitude admirably: "Let us remember
that we should not disregard the experience of ages; in the multitude
of years, these things, if they were good, would certainly not have been
unknown; for almost everything has been found out, although sometimes
they are not put together; in other cases men do not use the knowledge
which they have." Aristotle in his Constitutions had made a study of one
hundred and fifty-eight constitutions of the states of his day, and the
fruits of that study are seen in the continual reference to concrete
political experience, which makes the Politics in some respects a
critical history of the workings of the institutions of the Greek city
state. In Books IV., V., and VI. the ideal state seems far away, and
we find a dispassionate survey of imperfect states, the best ways of
preserving them, and an analysis of the causes of their instability.
1101109518
The Politics of Aristotle is the second part of a treatise of which
the Ethics is the first part. It looks back to the Ethics as the Ethics
looks forward to the Politics. For Aristotle did not separate, as we are
inclined to do, the spheres of the statesman and the moralist. In the
Ethics he has described the character necessary for the good life, but
that life is for him essentially to be lived in society, and when in the
last chapters of the Ethics he comes to the practical application of his
inquiries, that finds expression not in moral exhortations addressed to
the individual but in a description of the legislative opportunities
of the statesman. It is the legislator's task to frame a society which
shall make the good life possible. Politics for Aristotle is not a
struggle between individuals or classes for power, nor a device for
getting done such elementary tasks as the maintenance of order and
security without too great encroachments on individual liberty. The
state is "a community of well-being in families and aggregations
of families for the sake of a perfect and self-sufficing life." The
legislator is a craftsman whose material is society and whose aim is the
good life.
In an early dialogue of Plato's, the Protagoras, Socrates asks
Protagoras why it is not as easy to find teachers of virtue as it is to
find teachers of swordsmanship, riding, or any other art. Protagoras'
answer is that there are no special teachers of virtue, because virtue
is taught by the whole community. Plato and Aristotle both accept the
view of moral education implied in this answer. In a passage of the
Republic (492 b) Plato repudiates the notion that the sophists have a
corrupting moral influence upon young men. The public themselves,
he says, are the real sophists and the most complete and thorough
educators. No private education can hold out against the irresistible
force of public opinion and the ordinary moral standards of society.
But that makes it all the more essential that public opinion and
social environment should not be left to grow up at haphazard as they
ordinarily do, but should be made by the wise legislator the expression
of the good and be informed in all their details by his knowledge. The
legislator is the only possible teacher of virtue.
Such a programme for a treatise on government might lead us to expect in
the Politics mainly a description of a Utopia or ideal state which
might inspire poets or philosophers but have little direct effect upon
political institutions. Plato's Republic is obviously impracticable, for
its author had turned away in despair from existing politics. He has no
proposals, in that dialogue at least, for making the best of things as
they are. The first lesson his philosopher has to learn is to turn away
from this world of becoming and decay, and to look upon the unchanging
eternal world of ideas. Thus his ideal city is, as he says, a pattern
laid up in heaven by which the just man may rule his life, a pattern
therefore in the meantime for the individual and not for the statesman.
It is a city, he admits in the Laws, for gods or the children of gods,
not for men as they are.
Aristotle has none of the high enthusiasm or poetic imagination of
Plato. He is even unduly impatient of Plato's idealism, as is shown
by the criticisms in the second book. But he has a power to see the
possibilities of good in things that are imperfect, and the patience of
the true politician who has learned that if he would make men what
they ought to be, he must take them as he finds them. His ideal
is constructed not of pure reason or poetry, but from careful and
sympathetic study of a wide range of facts. His criticism of Plato in
the light of history, in Book II. chap, v., though as a criticism it is
curiously inept, reveals his own attitude admirably: "Let us remember
that we should not disregard the experience of ages; in the multitude
of years, these things, if they were good, would certainly not have been
unknown; for almost everything has been found out, although sometimes
they are not put together; in other cases men do not use the knowledge
which they have." Aristotle in his Constitutions had made a study of one
hundred and fifty-eight constitutions of the states of his day, and the
fruits of that study are seen in the continual reference to concrete
political experience, which makes the Politics in some respects a
critical history of the workings of the institutions of the Greek city
state. In Books IV., V., and VI. the ideal state seems far away, and
we find a dispassionate survey of imperfect states, the best ways of
preserving them, and an analysis of the causes of their instability.
A TREATISE ON GOVERNMENT
INTRODUCTION
The Politics of Aristotle is the second part of a treatise of which
the Ethics is the first part. It looks back to the Ethics as the Ethics
looks forward to the Politics. For Aristotle did not separate, as we are
inclined to do, the spheres of the statesman and the moralist. In the
Ethics he has described the character necessary for the good life, but
that life is for him essentially to be lived in society, and when in the
last chapters of the Ethics he comes to the practical application of his
inquiries, that finds expression not in moral exhortations addressed to
the individual but in a description of the legislative opportunities
of the statesman. It is the legislator's task to frame a society which
shall make the good life possible. Politics for Aristotle is not a
struggle between individuals or classes for power, nor a device for
getting done such elementary tasks as the maintenance of order and
security without too great encroachments on individual liberty. The
state is "a community of well-being in families and aggregations
of families for the sake of a perfect and self-sufficing life." The
legislator is a craftsman whose material is society and whose aim is the
good life.
In an early dialogue of Plato's, the Protagoras, Socrates asks
Protagoras why it is not as easy to find teachers of virtue as it is to
find teachers of swordsmanship, riding, or any other art. Protagoras'
answer is that there are no special teachers of virtue, because virtue
is taught by the whole community. Plato and Aristotle both accept the
view of moral education implied in this answer. In a passage of the
Republic (492 b) Plato repudiates the notion that the sophists have a
corrupting moral influence upon young men. The public themselves,
he says, are the real sophists and the most complete and thorough
educators. No private education can hold out against the irresistible
force of public opinion and the ordinary moral standards of society.
But that makes it all the more essential that public opinion and
social environment should not be left to grow up at haphazard as they
ordinarily do, but should be made by the wise legislator the expression
of the good and be informed in all their details by his knowledge. The
legislator is the only possible teacher of virtue.
Such a programme for a treatise on government might lead us to expect in
the Politics mainly a description of a Utopia or ideal state which
might inspire poets or philosophers but have little direct effect upon
political institutions. Plato's Republic is obviously impracticable, for
its author had turned away in despair from existing politics. He has no
proposals, in that dialogue at least, for making the best of things as
they are. The first lesson his philosopher has to learn is to turn away
from this world of becoming and decay, and to look upon the unchanging
eternal world of ideas. Thus his ideal city is, as he says, a pattern
laid up in heaven by which the just man may rule his life, a pattern
therefore in the meantime for the individual and not for the statesman.
It is a city, he admits in the Laws, for gods or the children of gods,
not for men as they are.
Aristotle has none of the high enthusiasm or poetic imagination of
Plato. He is even unduly impatient of Plato's idealism, as is shown
by the criticisms in the second book. But he has a power to see the
possibilities of good in things that are imperfect, and the patience of
the true politician who has learned that if he would make men what
they ought to be, he must take them as he finds them. His ideal
is constructed not of pure reason or poetry, but from careful and
sympathetic study of a wide range of facts. His criticism of Plato in
the light of history, in Book II. chap, v., though as a criticism it is
curiously inept, reveals his own attitude admirably: "Let us remember
that we should not disregard the experience of ages; in the multitude
of years, these things, if they were good, would certainly not have been
unknown; for almost everything has been found out, although sometimes
they are not put together; in other cases men do not use the knowledge
which they have." Aristotle in his Constitutions had made a study of one
hundred and fifty-eight constitutions of the states of his day, and the
fruits of that study are seen in the continual reference to concrete
political experience, which makes the Politics in some respects a
critical history of the workings of the institutions of the Greek city
state. In Books IV., V., and VI. the ideal state seems far away, and
we find a dispassionate survey of imperfect states, the best ways of
preserving them, and an analysis of the causes of their instability.
The Politics of Aristotle is the second part of a treatise of which
the Ethics is the first part. It looks back to the Ethics as the Ethics
looks forward to the Politics. For Aristotle did not separate, as we are
inclined to do, the spheres of the statesman and the moralist. In the
Ethics he has described the character necessary for the good life, but
that life is for him essentially to be lived in society, and when in the
last chapters of the Ethics he comes to the practical application of his
inquiries, that finds expression not in moral exhortations addressed to
the individual but in a description of the legislative opportunities
of the statesman. It is the legislator's task to frame a society which
shall make the good life possible. Politics for Aristotle is not a
struggle between individuals or classes for power, nor a device for
getting done such elementary tasks as the maintenance of order and
security without too great encroachments on individual liberty. The
state is "a community of well-being in families and aggregations
of families for the sake of a perfect and self-sufficing life." The
legislator is a craftsman whose material is society and whose aim is the
good life.
In an early dialogue of Plato's, the Protagoras, Socrates asks
Protagoras why it is not as easy to find teachers of virtue as it is to
find teachers of swordsmanship, riding, or any other art. Protagoras'
answer is that there are no special teachers of virtue, because virtue
is taught by the whole community. Plato and Aristotle both accept the
view of moral education implied in this answer. In a passage of the
Republic (492 b) Plato repudiates the notion that the sophists have a
corrupting moral influence upon young men. The public themselves,
he says, are the real sophists and the most complete and thorough
educators. No private education can hold out against the irresistible
force of public opinion and the ordinary moral standards of society.
But that makes it all the more essential that public opinion and
social environment should not be left to grow up at haphazard as they
ordinarily do, but should be made by the wise legislator the expression
of the good and be informed in all their details by his knowledge. The
legislator is the only possible teacher of virtue.
Such a programme for a treatise on government might lead us to expect in
the Politics mainly a description of a Utopia or ideal state which
might inspire poets or philosophers but have little direct effect upon
political institutions. Plato's Republic is obviously impracticable, for
its author had turned away in despair from existing politics. He has no
proposals, in that dialogue at least, for making the best of things as
they are. The first lesson his philosopher has to learn is to turn away
from this world of becoming and decay, and to look upon the unchanging
eternal world of ideas. Thus his ideal city is, as he says, a pattern
laid up in heaven by which the just man may rule his life, a pattern
therefore in the meantime for the individual and not for the statesman.
It is a city, he admits in the Laws, for gods or the children of gods,
not for men as they are.
Aristotle has none of the high enthusiasm or poetic imagination of
Plato. He is even unduly impatient of Plato's idealism, as is shown
by the criticisms in the second book. But he has a power to see the
possibilities of good in things that are imperfect, and the patience of
the true politician who has learned that if he would make men what
they ought to be, he must take them as he finds them. His ideal
is constructed not of pure reason or poetry, but from careful and
sympathetic study of a wide range of facts. His criticism of Plato in
the light of history, in Book II. chap, v., though as a criticism it is
curiously inept, reveals his own attitude admirably: "Let us remember
that we should not disregard the experience of ages; in the multitude
of years, these things, if they were good, would certainly not have been
unknown; for almost everything has been found out, although sometimes
they are not put together; in other cases men do not use the knowledge
which they have." Aristotle in his Constitutions had made a study of one
hundred and fifty-eight constitutions of the states of his day, and the
fruits of that study are seen in the continual reference to concrete
political experience, which makes the Politics in some respects a
critical history of the workings of the institutions of the Greek city
state. In Books IV., V., and VI. the ideal state seems far away, and
we find a dispassionate survey of imperfect states, the best ways of
preserving them, and an analysis of the causes of their instability.
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Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940015114386 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | SAP |
| Publication date: | 09/04/2012 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| File size: | 233 KB |
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