aristotle and democracy. overview aristotle the polis virtue natural slavery good government

Aristotle and Democracy

Overview

Aristotle The Polis Virtue Natural Slavery Good Government

Aristotle

Biographical Overview 384-322 B.C.E. Born in Macedonia, to

wealthy parents connected to the royal household

Studied with Plato for 17 years

Tutor to Alexander the Great 343-335 B.C.E.

335/4 returned to Athens and founded own school – the Lyceum

I. The Polis and the Political Stature of Man/Woman

The Politics is an attempt to understand the essence of political life

Aristotle grounds that understanding on the facts of “real world” political life


“Since we see that every city is some sort of partnership, and that every partnership is constituted for the sake of some good (for everyone does everything for the sake of what is held to be good), it is clear that all partnerships aim at some good, and that the partnership that is most authoritative of all and embraces all the others does so particularly, and aims at the most authoritative good of all. This is what is called the city or the political partnership” (Book I, chapter 1).


“Since we see that every city is some sort of partnership…” City => association that aims at highest good Politics => activity that happens in a city


Two ideas we need to develop here:

1. Authoritative Association

2. Authoritative Good


Authoritative Association Every association aimed at some end

Family (Book I, chp. 2, 1252b)Town (Book I, chp. 2, 1252b)City/Polis (Book I chp. 2, 1253a)


The FamilyStructure

Two associations:Male/FemaleRuler/Ruled

End of Family? Reproduction (1st association)“needs of daily life” (2nd association)


The VillageStructure

Groupings of familiesEnd of the village?

Reproduction“needs of daily life”

I.I. The The PolisPolis and the Political and the Political Stature of Man/WomanStature of Man/Woman

The CityThe City–SStructureSStructure

Ggroupings of villages (Book 1, chp. 2)Ggroupings of villages (Book 1, chp. 2)–EEnd of the city?EEnd of the city?

–RReproduction?RReproduction?–““needs of daily life”?needs of daily life”?–Eend of the city = not just life or living, but living the “good Eend of the city = not just life or living, but living the “good life.” life.”


The Polis:

“The partnership arising from several villages that is complete is the city. It reaches a level of full self-sufficiency, so to speak; and while coming into being for the sake of living, it exists for the sake of living well” (Book 1, chp. 2. 1252b).

Authoritative Association

Authoritative Association The authoritative or sovereign association is

one that decides the aims of other (smaller or constitutive) associations

Thus the polis exists prior to the individual


Authoritative Association

“The city is thus prior by nature to the household and to each of us. For the whole must of necessity be prior to the part; for if the whole is destroyed there will not be a foot or a hand…For if the individual when separated is not self sufficient, he will be in a condition similar to that of the other parts in relation to the whole” (Book 1, chp. 2, 1253b).

Back


“One who is incapable of participating or who is in need of nothing through being self-sufficient is no part of a city, and so is either a beast or a god” (Book 1, chap. 2, 1253b).


Two ideas we need to develop here:Authoritative AssociationAuthoritative Good


Authoritative GoodThree Classes of Good

Good ConsequencesGood Consequences & Good in ThemselvesAuthoritative/Sovereign Good

I.I. The The PolisPolis and the Political and the Political Stature of Man/WomanStature of Man/Woman

Good ConsequencesGood Consequences

Nothing intrinsically good about surgery. It’s good only because of its consequences


Good Consequences & Good in Themselves For example: vision They have good results and they’re good Would rather have vision than not have it (unlike

surgery) and the consequences of its possession are also good

Authoritative Good

Authoritative/Sovereign Good Supreme Goods Things just good in and of themselves Not a means to any other good For example: happiness

Happiness is that state where we have all that we should have.

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Virtue is that aspect of something that enables it to develop itself and to achieve its final end.

Virtuous person is one with properties that enable him/her to develop fully human capacities.

Good polis, then, is one which fosters virtue. Polis is the authoritative good since it allows for the

development of our fully human capacities.


“From these things it is evident, then, that the city belongs among the things that exist by nature, and that man is by nature a political animal” (Book 1, chp. 2, 1253a)


Aristotle’s View of the Polis vs. Modern Conceptions Today we view politics as a means of insuring

private goodWe use politics for selfish ends

For Aristotle, man is a political animal, political life is part of the individual


Politics means getting together in public and deciding what we ought to do this activity allows for development of virtue

where virtue is a public activity How do we know the essence of human species?

“Everything is defined by its task and its power…” (Book 1, chp. 2)

Need to develop this idea more fully

II. Teleology

1. Everything in nature is ordered, exists for a purpose

2. Everything has a nature, and built into each nature is an end (telos)

3. Acorn example, again

4. How to know end? Observation

5. How to know what to observe?

II. Teleology

“It is in things whose condition is according to nature that one ought particularly to investigate what is by nature, not in things that are defective. Thus the human being to be studied is one whose state is best both in body and in soul…” (Book 1, chp. 5, 1254a)

II. Teleology

Man -- in right sort of polis -- can grow to be “full” human where “full” means achieving full human potential Contrast with contemporary conceptions where politics

is private; a means to secure private interest For Aristotle, the private is simply a means to sustain

politics. Politics is what is really important, so need to subordinate private life to public life

II. Teleology

Politics is a public activity indeed it is the activity which distinguishes us from other social animals

What is politics? Why is it special?

II. Teleology

Politics is: Activity where people decide and then act on the

decision Based on rational persuasion, not coercion

(logos =speaking = only possible with other humans)Our humanity is only attainable in political setting

II. Teleology

“One who is incapable of participating or who is in need of nothing through being self-sufficient is no part of a city, and so is either a beast or a god” (Book 1, chp. 2, 1253a).

Conducted only between equals

II. Teleology

Our humanity is attainable only in the polis

Raises question: who should be included in politics?

III. Natural Slavery

Recall Point II.1: Nature has an order

Order is hierarchical

The Scale of Being

pond scum

The Scale of Being

pond scum

insects

The Scale of Being

pond scum

insects

reptiles

The Scale of Being

pond scum

insects

reptiles

mammals

pond scum

insects

reptiles

mammals

human beings

The Scale of Being


Why should we suddenly become standardless as we cross human threshold?

No reason for egalitarianism Not everybody is able to take care of

themselves so ...


Slavery, under the right conditions, is natural Slavery is just insofar as some people are slaves

by nature

Slavery indispensable to good polis Politics is a leisure activity


Unless we have one class permanently engaged in producing the sustenance necessary for life, nobody is able to attain the good life and thus to achieve the proper end of the species. Question of how to distribute burdens of labor and

leisure Slaves do all the manual work, masters develop into

“full” human beings Good polis needs slaves

The Good Polis

What is the good polis? How would we determine the nature of the

good polis?

Aristotle’s Regime Types

Monarchy Tyranny

Aristocracy Oligarchy

Polity Democracy

Size Of

Regime

“End” of RegimePublic Good Private Gain

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Monarchy Tyranny


Polity Democracy

Size Of

Regime

“End” of RegimePublic Good Private Gain


Monarchy Tyranny


Polity Democracy

Size Of

Regime

“End” of RegimePublic Good

Private Gain

Aristotle’s Polity

Monarchy? No: we want the

highest level of communal activity possible. Monarchy won’t allow that


Democracy? No: remember our

inegalitarian understanding of nature; therefore unlikely that the virtues will be distributed evenly through the population


Aristocracy? Yes. Why?

Allows for public participation in reason

Power will be diffused through the group rather than concentrated in a single individual

Likely that will be able to have moral virtue or goodness in this restricted group of people


Evolution of the polis problem How to prevent the decay or at least stave off

the decay. How do we account for the collapse of these

regime types?


Answer? The existence of factions within the body politic

Why do factions arise? Need to re-examine the organization of the polis


What is the first necessity of the polis? Need to sustain mere life in order to begin to

pursue the good life But

The production of mere life creates class differences which makes pursuit of the good life untenable

How or Why?


If we assume that: Scarcity exists, and that Talents and luck are unevenly distributed in the

population, then In the division of labor of the city, we will

inevitably get an inegalitarian social system, with the population divided into distinct and competing classes


The Power of the Rich: The wealthy have a natural common interest in

protecting wealth Oligarchic faction is inevitable Claim to power?

Since wealth is necessary for polis to run, and wealth is built on inequality, it is permissible to treat unequals as unequals.


Power of the Poor? In a city, likely to have many more people who

are poor rather than rich Power of numbers Ideological claim?

Since demos (the people) defend the city and the wealthy who live there, then each group contributes equally important functions to the polis, so that justice then means allowing everyone into the ruling class


How to settle between the two? Aristotle argues that at one level, both groups

seem to be right, but that at a deeper level both are wrong

Both forget that the aim of the polis is not simply mere life, but the good life (III, ix, 1280b29-1281a2)


The city needs an aristocratic faction Not necessarily wealthy, but a small group

concerned with the good (moral virtue) Unfortunately, such people are relatively

powerless (not necessarily rich and not a majority)


Life of the polis will degenerate to the Lowest Common Denominator (pursuit of mere life) where either the demos or the oligarchs rule, and pursuit of the good life is lost

So… need to determine how to control factions


His solution? “The first and obvious point to make is that if

indeed we do understand the causes of their [i.e., Constitutions’] destruction, then we understand also the causes of their preservation. For opposites are productive of opposites, and destruction is the opposite of preservation” (V, viii, 1307b26)


His solution? Given that we have two different factions, what can we

do? Options are constrained by the raw material we have to work with Don’t allow officeholders a financial gain in holding office:

“It is most important in every constitution that the legal and other administrative arrangements should be such that holding office is not a source of profit”

-- V, viii, 1308b3I Implication: only oligarchs will rule Pay people to vote

Demos can control the rulers

The Polity of Mixed Government

People will choose their rulers on the basis of which are the “best” oligarchs

Aristotle argues that we need to try to mix the oligarchic and democratic elements together so that once we assemble the government, it is neither democratic nor oligarchic


In this way we can try to get the oligarchs to act more like aristocrats

Why? In order to gain votes they’ll need to appeal to

the interests of the other class. They’ll need to offer a vision of the good life for the city as a whole.


So Aristotle’s vision of the best regime is the polity – a political association which attempts to form a just regime with less than perfect people

Machiavelli

Niccolò Machiavelli (1469 – 1527)

European Renaissance Declining power of Church Advancing in Science, Arts,

Literature

The Prince written in 1513 during period of political exile

Copernican Universe

Machiavelli

Machiavelli & Florence Medici family rules city French forces invade, set up

republican government Machiavelli gets role in

government, ends up as high civil servant, some diplomatic missions and military operations

Machiavelli

Machiavelli & Florence Spanish defeat the French, and reinstall the Medici Machiavelli is arrested, tortured, and eventually exiled to

his country home beyond the city walls During this period (he’s in his 40s) he begins his

philosophical/political writing, including The Prince and The Discourses

en ordinary morality is not binding and he/she/they can pretty much do what they must to stay in power

aristotle and democracy. overview aristotle the polis virtue natural slavery good government

Documents

political partnership

sort of partnership

good life

bcitypolis book

sake of living

associationneeds of

sovereign association

royal householdstudied