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Aristotle was born in 384 in the small town of Stagira, and he moved to Athens in 367 to join Plato's Academy. After twenty years of study, his career at the Academy was interrupted after the death of Plato.
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Outline • Life and Times • Plato vsAristotle • Aristotle’s Political Prejudices • Teleology: Nature and Politics • Aristotle's "Four Causes" • Ethics and The Politics • PoliticalAnaysis • PoliticalMan • Slavery • Economic Activity • Political Analysis • Citizenship and Constitution • Aristotle’s Classification of Constitutions • Forms of Government • The Avoidance of Stasis • Golden Mean • Ideal States
Life and Times • Aristotle was born in 384 in the small town of Stagira, and he moved to Athens in 367 to join Plato's Academy. After twenty years of study, his career at the Academy was interrupted after the death of Plato. Aristotle took a hiatus from the Academy and traveled to Lesbos, lived in Assos, where he was supported by the tyrant Hermias. He was then summoned to Pella in 342 to become the tutor of Alexander the Great, a position he held until 336. In 335, he returned to Athens to found his own school, the Lyceum. His school was marked by an enthusiasm for empirical investigation, and he founded the empirical discipline of politics. His political analysis was a mixture of practical wisdom and an attempt to show that the best state is best "by nature." In 323, Alexander's unexpected death prompted Athens to revolt, and Aristotle was forced into exile in Chalcis, where he died a year later.
Aristotle’s Political Prejudices • Aristotle's views on slavery and the capacity of women are profoundly unacceptableto modern readers. • Connected to the master-inferior relationship of a male head of household to wife and slaves, • Aristotle believed that menial work would prevent men from engaging in political life. He argued for the justice of these relationships, including the idea that slavery could be acquired through the art of war or hunting. • He also maintained that women have too little rational capacity to participate in political life. • Outrage from modern readers is due to the fact that Aristotle's views were commonplace in the ancient Greek world. The remedy for his blind spots is a more diligent application of his empirical methods.
Aristotle’s Political Prejudices:Status of Women in Athens & Aristotle on Women • Confined to home: weaving and child care; Allowed outside for important religious festivals; No sports! Forbidden to marry or have relations with metics (foreign males); Metic women had greater freedom. • Sparta: Young women exercised in public; Participated in sports; Did not perform household labor; Responsible for childcare; Old husbands introduced young men to their wives for procreation. • Husband’s “rule over his wife is like that of a statesman over fellow citizens” (Pol. 1.12). • Women have a degree of governing capacity, i.e. for child care, but ‘without authority’ (Pol. 1.13); • ‘Silence is a woman’s glory’ (Sophocles, quoted in Pol. 1.13); • Aristotle favors moderate exercise for women; Women should be much younger than their husbands (18 for wife, mid-30’s for husband) (Pol. 7.16).
Teleology: Nature and Politics • Aristotle had a different concept of nature than we havetoday, and believed that the behavior of entities such as plants, animals, persons, and institutions could be explained by their telos, or “end”.
Teleology: Nature and Politics • This teleological explanation was expelled from the physical sciences during the scientific revolution of the 17th century. • Aristotle's view survives today in the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, which postulates that natural law and divine law reinforce each other. • Aristotle's notion of nature is hierarchical, and human beings occupy the top of the hierarchy. To discover what nature is aiming for, Aristotle believed one must observe what is happening in nature. • His four kinds of causes – material, form, purpose, and origin - are all relevant to political analysis.
Aristotle's "Four Causes" • Aristotle sought to explain the World as a result of causes and purposes. • Fourkinds of answers to "Why" (Physics II:3, and Metaphysics V:2). • Matter: a material cause. For a table, that matter might be wood; for a statue, it might be bronze or marble. • Form: a formal cause is the shape. • Agency or Efficiency: an efficient cause. For example, the efficient cause of a table is a carpenter acting on wood. Theefficient cause of a child is a father. • End or Purpose: a final cause. A seed's end is an adult plant. A sailboat's purpose is sailing. • For example, the cause or explanation of a table is that it is solid and grained because it is made of wood (material), it does not collapse because of its design with four legs of equal length (formal), it occurs as it does because a carpenter made it from wood (agency, or efficiency), and it has particular dimensions because of is intended to support objects (purpose).
Ethics and The Politics • Platobelieved the empirical world was a poor copy of a transempirical reality, and geometry studies perfect geometrical figures. • Aristotle accepted the world of observation, and believed a successful explanation should "save the appearances". • Galileo overturned Aristotelian astronomy and physics, but accepted that an explanation must explain why things look the way they do. • Thomas Hobbes followed Plato in modelling politics on geometry, but admired Aristotle's biology. • Aristotle believed political analysis should aim for as much precision as the subject matter permits, and individuals are intended to live in a polis rather than the polis being intended for individuals. • Ethics is the study of living well, which requires understanding the goal of human life and the virtues that make up a good life. Aristotle argues that it is rational to be just and to acquire a just character, but there is no guarantee the just man will always do better than the unjust man. A society of just persons will always do better than a society of unjust persons, and a rational man will wish to live in a just society.
PoliticalAnaysis • Aristotle believed that humans are not motivated solely by self-interest, but instead seek their own well-being. He proposed that the pursuit of genuine goods in life, such as justice, leads to happiness. He also argued that wrong wants, such as addiction, can lead to a misguided pursuit of what is good for us. • In Politics, Aristotle examines the ideal state and its educational system. He argues that political arrangements should be inspected to evaluate their success, and that the qualifications for citizenship should be determined. • He also discusses the concept of revolutionary upheaval and the construction of a just society.
Political Man • Aristotle's Politics is a work that discusses the purpose of the polis and the qualifications for citizenship. • He argues against Plato's model of the polis and criticizes writers who equate authority with ownership. He also explains that the polis provides an environment for humans to best fulfill their potential, and that the life of a philosopher is unique and fulfilling. • Aristotle also analyzes the nature of households and the different kinds of authority exercised in economic and political life. His idea that the authority of an association is determined by its purpose was later enshrined in the American Constitution. • He also believed that slaves should do manual labor to allow citizens to participate in political life, and that if slaves were rightful captives, manumission (releasefromslavery) should be offered.
Political Man(ZoonPoliticon) Aristotle: «Man, thePoliticalAnimal» «That man is much more a political animal than any kind of bee or any herd animal is clear. For, as we assert, nature does nothing in vain, and man alone among the animals has speech….[S]peech serves to reveal the advantageous and the harmful and hence also the just and unjust. For it is peculiar to man as compared to the other animals that he alone has a perception of good and bad and just and unjust and other things of this sort; and partnership in these things is what makes a household and a city».
Political Man(ZoonPoliticon) What Aristotle meant: Humanbeing is a social animal, but different from bees and herd animals. Theyorganize, participate in city (police) administration; Theydo not act solely to maintain himself and his species, but engage in purposeful activities that they have planned for a goal (from tool making to government building to study -- and always getting better by learning). Theysocializes (organizes) to live better and make policy to make it happen. Human is not innately "political"; “Politics” is human.
Slavery • ForAristotle, authority follows function extends to the relationshipthat most troubles Aristotle’s readers, slavery. Aristotle assumed that if aman (and it is only men he has in mind) was to have leisure to play a role inthe political life of his society, slaves must do the manual labor that isbeneath the dignity of citizens. • Slaves are“animatedtools,” instruments to be set to work to achieve what their owners require ofthem.
EconomicActivity • Aristotle's views on money and economics have had a large impact on later economic thought. He argued for private production and common use, and believed the value of goods was determined by both the effort of the producers and the desires of the purchasers (demand). • He proposed that the ideal state should be governed by moderately well-off citizens who draw their livelihood from farms. • He also advocated for freedom without anarchy and order without tyranny, suggesting nondrastic(not severe andsudden) measures for creating public-spirited citizens. Aristotle was the first to call for the "government of laws not of men." • Modern economists have a sense of what is an unconscionably high or low price, similar to Aristotle's concept of a fair day's pay for a fair day's work.
Citizenship and Constitution • Aristotle's work explores the nature of citizenship, the qualities of a good constitution, the causes of revolution, and ways to prevent upheaval. • He suggests that a person must be self-governing domestically to be part of a self-governing political community, and that such a community should be moderated by elective aristocracy. • Machiavelli, Rousseau, Jefferson, Madison, and Mill have all added to the debate of the modern nation-state, with the idea of representative democracy seen as the great discovery of the modern age. • Aristotle's ideas about citizenship reflect the assumptions of well-off Athenians, and he does not argue for a human right to citizenship but believes that there are better and worse candidates for it. • He also believes that nature dictates women should be ruled by their husbands and those employed in manual labor are unfit to give their views on political matters.
Aristotle’s Classification of Constitutions • Aristotle believed that the best form of government was an aristocracy, in which a few best men rule in the interest of the whole. • However, experience shows that aristocracies are prone to become oligarchies, in which class pride rules. To balance this out, Aristotle proposed a sexpartite (involving division into six parts) distinction between forms of government, with three virtuous forms and three corrupt forms. • He also suggested that the problem in designing a constitution is to distribute power so as to incentivize those who have it to use it for the common good. He argued that the poor should not be allowed to have active citizenship, and that a narrow democracy or expanded aristocracy would be the best solution. • Ultimately, Aristotle argued that the excellence of citizens and the excellence of the constitutional form should be connected, and that a lottery system could be uniquely effective in achieving equal influence for all.
The Avoidance of Stasis (Stability) • Aristotle argued that the polis was designed to provide the best life in common for man, and to prevent revolution. • He divided revolution into two parts:(1) stasis, when political life cannot go on any longer, and (2) the bloody civil war that often results. • He believed revolution was caused by a conflict of economic and social interests, and a sense of injustice. • He believed that in democracies, people who have equal political rights should also have equal economic advantages, • and in oligarchies, those unequal in wealth should also be unequal in all other areas. • He offered advice on self-preservation which echoed through the centuries, suggesting that rulers should attempt to behave moderately and virtuously to maintain their power. • He was not moralizing, but rather trying to analyze how a state could function smoothly.
The Avoidance of Stasis • Aristotle's advice to tyrants was to look to their strengths and avoid their weaknesses. • He advocated for a mixed constitution that combined the best elements of monarchy, aristocracy and democracy. • He believed that a political system that gives political power to the majority of citizens so long as they also possess the majority of society's wealth is uniquely likely to be stable. • The mixed constitution was made famous by Sparta, but Aristotle's main focus was on the good sense and steadiness of the middling sort, allowing them to exercise a preponderance of power. • In more modern times, the middle class outnumbering the poor is seen as advantageous, and Aristotle's views have been found to be surprisingly suggestive.
Ideal States • Aristotle's aim was to construct the best practicable state by pursuing justice and developing virtues. • He distinguishes between gregarious (sociable) animals and humans, who unite in political society by agreement on principles of justice. • He criticizes Plato's idea of a unified society, arguing that this abolishes politics and deprives citizens of private property and family life. Aristotle instead proposes that happiness can only exist in the parts of a polis, not the whole. • He ends his Politics by setting up his own version of an ideal state.
Ideal States • Books 7 and 8 of Aristotle's Politics presents an ideal state that he believes would lead to the good life. He suggests a state with a population of no more than ten thousand citizens, supported by an agricultural economy with slaves, and fed at common tables. • However, his vision of the perfect state is authoritarian and does not recognize privacy. In the last part of his Politics, Aristotle encourages a liberal education, however it is not political but aristocratic. • Finally, he emphasizes the importance of social distinction and rule of natural aristocrats, while not acknowledging the rights of women, working people, foreigners, and slaves.
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