Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)• Born in Stagira, an Athenian colony in Macedonia

(Aristotle was never an Athenian citizen foreigner)Cosmopolitan perspective

• Upper-middle class background, his father was the physician of the Macedonian court.

• At 17, moved to Athens to study at Plato’s Academy• Tutor of Macedonian Alexander• Organized his own academy in Athens, the

Lyceeum • After Alexander’s death (323 B.C.) Aristotle had to

go into exile and died the following year in Chalcis.

Foundational work in diverse disciplines

• Biology, zoology (identified 500 species), physics, medicine, psychology, logic, metaphysics, rhetorics, aesthetics, ethics, politics (all of these subjects were taught in the Lyceeum)

• Politics– Political theory– Comparative government (Aristotle is the first

comparativist—study of 158 constitutions)

Works:

• Compiled in 150 volumes

• Includes The Athenian Constitution, On Dreams, Physics, Metaphysics, Poetics, Politics, Nicomachean Ethics, Rhetorics…

• Politics (8 books)

• http://classics.mit.edu/Browse/index-Aristotle.html

Similarities/Differences with Plato?

Best Ideal form of government (kingship)

Best ideal (kingship or aristocracy) and existent (polity) forms of governments

Rationalism (deduction) Comparative method

Forms/Ideas Substance/categories

Nature (fixed) (realization of) nature

Comprehensive understanding of constitution

Constitution: “arrangement of magistracies in a state” (100)

Happiness as a quality of the whole

Happiness: “realization and perfect practice of virtue” (97)

Critique of property and the family

Property is good (and the familiy is necessary) -- equalization

Rule of the best Rule according to law

Other…?

Plato Aristotle

Nature

• Species (fixed #)

• Teleology: “…the nature of a thing is its end.”

• Potency Realization

• How and where is human nature fully developed? Why?

The State = Organic Whole

State

Village

Family

Individual

Man as a political animal

What distinguishes the state from all other communities?How is state rule different from master/slave domination?

The Good Life = Happiness

• … Is the virtuous life.• The practice of virtue requires being “furnished

with means.” (88)• Practicing virtue allows human beings to become

what they are, to realize their essence.• Speech and action (in the Polis) • Good man ≠ good citizen• Activities that allow men to realize their nature:

art, science, prudence, wisdom, and intuition.– “The political sciences are species of prudence.”

Functions of the State(services the state must provide) (98)

• Food

• Arts

• Arms

• Revenue

• Religion

• Power of deciding

• Justice

“…a state exists for the sake of a good life, and not for the sake of life only…”

Life & the state

Zoē Zoē Vs. BiosBiosMere Life the Good Life(or Bare Life)(voice) (speech)

“…it is evident that the state is a creation of nature, and that man is by nature a political animal. And he who by nature and not by mere accident is without a state, is either a bad man or above humanity; he is like the

Tribeless, lawless, heartless one

Whom Homer denounces—the natural outcast is forthwith a lover of war; he may be compared to an isolated piece at draughts.” (86)

Parts /Necessary conditions

Ontology

Natural hierarchy of beings

(fixed)… Scale of Being

Non-Being

Being God

Angels

Man (female, slave)

Animals

Plants

Minerals

“…governments differ in kind…”

Goal

#

Pursuing the common interest (true)

Pursuing private interest (perversions)

One Kingship Tyranny

Few Aristocracy Oligarchy

Many Constitutional Government (olygarchy + democracy)

Democracy

Cycle

Tyranny

Aristocracy

OligarchyPolity

Democracy

Kingship

Best and Worst Forms

Kingship (the best regime, ideally)

Tyranny

Aristocracy Oligarchy

Constitution/Polity (the best regime for most existent societies)

Democracy (the most tolerable of the degenerate forms)

Is Aristotle’s ontology still dominant these days?

• Is politics in the West founded upon these distinctions?

• Are all beings equally worthy, or some forms of life amount for only “mere life”?

• Are these distinctions still made among human beings?

• Is this a good or bad understanding of human nature?

Categories

• Substance (fundamental entities)• Quality • Quantity • Relation • Where • When • Position • Having • Action • Passion

Redeveloped by Kant in the 18th century