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?
 Plato Aristotle

Best Ideal form of government Best ideal (kingship or

(kingship) aristocracy) and existent (polity)
forms of governments
Rationalism (deduction) Comparative method
Forms/Ideas Substance/categories
Nature (fixed) (realization of) nature
Comprehensive understanding Constitution: “arrangement of
of constitution magistracies in a state” (100)
Happiness as a quality of the Happiness: “realization and
whole perfect practice of virtue” (97)
Critique of property and the Property is good (and the familiy
family is necessary) -- equalization
Rule of the best Rule according to law
Other…?
 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
Man as a political animal Individual
Family
Village
State

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
“…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)

Zoē Vs. Bios

Mere Life the Good Life
(or Bare Life)
(voice) (speech)
Parts /Necessary conditions
 Ontology
Being God

Natural hierarchy of beings

Angels
(fixed)… Scale of Being

Man
(female, slave)

Animals

Plants

Minerals

Non-Being
 “…governments differ in kind…”

Goal Pursuing the common Pursuing private

# interest (true) interest (perversions)
One Kingship Tyranny
Few Aristocracy Oligarchy
Many Constitutional Democracy
Government
(olygarchy +
democracy)
 Cycle

Kingship Tyranny

Democracy Aristocracy

Polity Oligarchy
 Best and Worst Forms
Kingship (the best Tyranny
regime, ideally)

Aristocracy Oligarchy

Constitution/Polity (the Democracy (the most

best regime for most tolerable of the
existent societies) 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