ARISTO

TLE’S

POLITICS

OUTLINE

• Administrative matters

• Lecture time and venue

• Tutorials

• Readings

• Ulink

• Tutor consultation

• Aristotle

• Knowledge and the different kinds of causes

• Metaphysical biology

• Start with Politics Book 1

ADMINSign 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

• Recap on Aristotle’s account of knowledge and the three causes

• Understand Aristotle’s political thought in light of his metaphysical biology

• 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.

ARISTO

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KNOWLE

DGE AND C

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ARISTO

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THE E

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ORIGIN

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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. 2When several villages are united in a single complete

community, large enough to be nearly or quite self-sufficing, 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. 2Hence 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. 2Further, 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.