The Political Writings of Aristotle

The most extensive interference Aristotle offers of the scope of unimaginative or semipolitical acquaintance is prime in the sixth book of the Nicomachean Ethics where he indicates that practical science is coextensive with both political science and prudence. political science in this conception has three branches: morality, or the science of character; economics, or the science of household worldly concernagement; and political science in its narrower and more familiar sense, the science of g everywherenment activity the political community:

It is of critical importance to recognize that ethics forms an integral part of political science in this panoptic sense, and that Aristotle's ethical writings are evidently conceived not as independent treatises but as prolegomena to a study of politics. any(prenominal) discussion of Aristotelian political science would therefore be incomplete without extended attention to the teaching of the ethical treatises and the birth of that teaching to the Politics (Strauss and Cropsey 121-122).

Political science studies the good for populace and for the state. Determining what is the good for man, however, is not a numericly solvable question. For one thing, political science examines this question by examining tender action, and human action cannot be determined or predicted with mathematical certitude. Aristotle discusses the difference between ethics and mathematics, and they differ because mathematics starts from widely distributed principles and argues to conclusions, while

For as man is the best of all animals when he has reached his full development, so he is worst of all when divorced from law and justice (Saunders 61).

Aristotle truism various dangers in democracy, with the emergence of demagogues appealing to the worst. Democracies under such circumstances may promote the interests of one group all over another and lead to rebellion or the expulsion of democracy, and Aristotle cites some(prenominal) instances of this among the Greek city-states. He finds that most of the early tyrants started out as popular leaders and then took unto themselves more and more power.

true leaders, feeling they have the confidence of the people, overstep their bounds and start tyrants (Saunders 311-313).

Adkins, A.W.H. "Aristotle's Ethics and Politics." In A Companion to Aristotle's Politics, David Keyt and Fred D. Miller (eds.). Cambridge: Blackwell, 1991. 75-93.

Whenever representation in the state is constituted on a buttocks of equality and similarly between citizens, they expect to discipline turns in exercising it. This principle is very old but in earlier times it was applied in a rude(a) and proper manner; men expected each to take a turn at public service, and during tenure of property to look after the interests of someone else, who then did the same for him (Saunders 188).

This free but necessary association is governed by the rule of law. At its center, Aristotle's ideal state, whatever its specific form of government, maintains its legitimacy by serving the good life for the people as a whole. Aristotle makes a distinction between the relationship of maitre d' over slave to that of formula over the ruled in the state. The master acts for his own benefit and has the right to do so, while the ruler should act for the good of the state and not for his own benefit. The authorship that supports this idea is the constitution that is acceptable:

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