Transcript Aristotle*s Politics

OUTLINE
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Administrative matters
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Lecture time and venue
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Tutorials
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Readings
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Ulink
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Tutor consultation
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Aristotle
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Knowledge and the different kinds of causes
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Metaphysical biology
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Start with Politics Book 1
ADMIN
Sign up for tutorials on the notice board at the Philosophy department. The lists will be taken down on
Monday afternoon.
The Blackboard module for Philosophy 2A has still not been set up.
Lectures:
Wednesday 13:50, D Lab K01
Thursday 14:40, C Les 103
Tutor consultation hours:
TBA!
Readings:
Until the Blackboard module is up and running, please get your readings on the internet.
Aristotle: Book 1: Sections 1-7; 12-13; Book 3: Sections 5-12; 17-18; http://classics.mit.edu/
Hobbes: http://www.gutenberg.org/
Locke: http://www.gutenberg.org/
TUTORIAL ASSESSMENT
Remember, all tutorial assessments are due on Thursdays before 12:00 (not Fridays).
Tutorial Assessment #1 (Aristotle)
In 300 words, summarise the essential points in Aristotle’s Politics, Book I, sections 5-7.
Due: Thursday before 12:00 at the Philosophy department, B Ring 6.
Submit through the postbox at the front of the department.
OUTCOMES FOR TODAY’S LECTURE
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Recap on Aristotle’s account of knowledge and the three causes
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Understand Aristotle’s political thought in light of his metaphysical biology
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Distinguish between the various elements of the state and its efficient and final
causes.
BUT FIRST!
A word on Aristotle’s context:
Aristotle (384-322) was a student of Plato’s. He was Macedonian but lived and taught in Athens
most of his life.
He has had a massive influence on classical, medieval and modern thought, and is still discussed
today in political philosophy, ethics, theology, logic and the meaning of life (among others).
Many medieval writers simply referred to him as “the philosopher”, and Muslim thinkers gave him
the title of “the First Teacher”.
While the themes of “freedom” and “liberty” are very important to political philosophy, these ideas
didn’t always hold the significance they do today. It was primarily during the English Civil War,
American Revolution and French Revolution that freedom explicitly became an important
value.
As such, when reading Aristotle, think how we can put his philosophy into dialogue with
contemporary concerns. Instead of looking for an explicit reference to “individual freedom” or
“liberty”, rather focus on what Aristotle says are the responsibilities and limitations of the
individual in the state, as well as what the state allows an individual to do and be.
BOOK 1, S. 1
Every state is a community of some kind, and every
community is established with a view to some good;
for mankind always act in order to obtain that which
they think good. But, if all communities aim at some
good, the state or political community, which is the
highest of all, and which embraces all the rest, aims
at good in a greater degree than any other, and at the
highest good.
BOOK 1, S. 1
As in other departments of science, so in politics, the
compound should always be resolved into the simple
elements or least parts of the whole. We must
therefore look at the elements of which the state is
composed, in order that we may see in what the
different kinds of rule differ from one another, and
whether any scientific result can be attained about
each one of them.
BOOK 1, S. 2
In the first place there must be a union of those who
cannot exist without each other; namely, of male
and female, that the race may continue (and this is
a union which is formed, not of deliberate purpose,
but because, in common with other animals and
with plants, mankind have a natural desire to leave
behind them an image of themselves), and of
natural ruler and subject, that both may be
preserved.
BOOK 1, S. 2
The family is the association established by
nature for the supply of men’s everyday
wants…But when several families are united,
and the association aims at something more
than the supply of daily needs, the first society
to be formed is the village.
BOOK 1, S. 2
When several villages are united in a single complete
community, large enough to be nearly or quite selfsufficing, the state comes into existence, originating in
the bare needs of life, and continuing in existence for
the sake of a good life. And therefore, if the earlier
forms of society are natural, so is the state, for it is the
end of them, and the nature of a thing is its end. For
what each thing is when fully developed, we call its
nature…Besides, the final cause and end of a thing is
the best, and to be self-sufficing is the end and the
best.
BOOK 1, S. 2
Hence 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…Now,
that man is more of a political animal than bees or
any other gregarious animals is evident… [I]t is a
characteristic of man that he alone has any sense of
good and evil, of just and unjust, and the like, and the
association of living beings who have this sense
makes a family and a state.
BOOK 1, S. 2
Further, the state is by nature clearly prior to the family and to
the individual, since the whole is of necessity prior to the
part; for example, if the whole body be destroyed, there will
be no foot or hand…The proof that the state is a creation of
nature and prior to the individual is that the individual,
when isolated, is not self-sufficing; and therefore he is like
a part in relation to the whole. But he who is unable to live
in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for
himself, must be either a beast or a god: he is no part of a
state.
BOOK 1, S. 2
For man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but,
when separated from law and justice, he is the worst
of all…Wherefore, if he have not virtue, he is the most
unholy and the most savage of animals, and the most
full of lust and gluttony. But justice is the bond of men
in states, for the administration of justice, which is
the determination of what is just, is the principle of
order in political society.