Aristotle's Politics Today

ARISTOTLE’S POLITICS TODAY

Download PDF (19.7 KB)
 

CONTENTS

Download PDF (29.2 KB)
pp. v-vi

INTRODUCTION

Download PDF (54.1 KB)
pp. 1-12

A well-known philosopher who lived through almost all of the twentieth century used to remark on the penchant some philosophers have for announcing the death of their own discipline. That bad habit isn’t confined to philosophers, of course. We’ve often seen premature obituaries about art in general or figural art in particular, or lyric poetry, or music, or melody, the novel, or religion. It was even thought, around the end of the nineteenth century, that physics was about finished and nothing...

1. ARISTOTELIAN STATECRAFT AND MODERN POLITICS

Download PDF (77.3 KB)
pp. 13-32

Aristotle still has much to offer to modern politics. Although many today would reject his aristocratic ideal (not to mention his endorsement of slavery and the disenfranchisement of women, artisans, and laborers), his conception of statecraft transcends his historical and political perspective. This chapter will offer a reconstruction of Aristotelian statecraft (politikē) and a brief overview of Aristotle’s suggestions as to how statecraft should be applied. The main thesis is that Aristotelian statecraft is...

2. ARISTOTLE AND THE LIBERAL STATE

Download PDF (54.3 KB)
pp. 33-44

On the surface the contrast between Aristotle’s political aims and those of the modern political state—I shall refer to it as the “liberal state”—could not be more stark. Whereas the very first sentence of the Politics asserts that all political associations aim at some good (1252a1–2), the liberal state does not aim to realize a public good but to insure that each individual is able to pursue his private vision of the good, so long as it does not interfere with others’ pursuits of their own goods.¹ Clearly, where...

3. WHY DEMOCRATS NEED THE VIRTUES

Download PDF (43.6 KB)
pp. 45-52

In this chapter, I pursue two related themes. First, I contend that the deliberative turn in contemporary democratic theory is as yet incomplete. Second, I propose some reasons for thinking that deliberative democrats must turn to Aristotle if they hope to complete their project. Thus the following pages are not focused upon some detail or other of Aristotle’s text, nor do I claim to be presenting a view that Aristotle himself would endorse. The point is rather to suggest that contemporary deliberativism needs Aristotle....

4. VIRTUE-ORIENTED POLITICS: CONFUCIUS AND ARISTOTLE

Download PDF (85.3 KB)
pp. 53-76

On the face of it, Aristotle’s view of politics seems quite different from Confucius’s. Aristotle defines the polis and the citizen and analyzes them according to a teleological understanding of nature.¹ Confucius not only lacks explicit definitions but also lacks any explicit theories about nature and teleology. Aristotle sharply distinguishes the political rule of statesmen from the household rule of fathers. Confucius assimilates political rule to household rule: political government is simply the father-son...

5. THE MORALITY OF NATIONS: AN ARISTOTELIAN APPROACH

Download PDF (63.4 KB)
pp. 77-92

Aristotle has very little to say about what we would today call inter-national relations. Nevertheless, I think that Aristotle does provide us with the conceptual tools for making some sense of the philosophical issues surrounding and saturating the global village. The principal insight gleaned from Aristotle in this regard is that much if not all of the discussion of international relations today rests on a serious mistake. The mistake is to suppose that nations are moral agents. ...

6. THE REVOLT OF THE JUST

Download PDF (62.3 KB)
pp. 93-108

Politics V is a frustrating book. Whatever Aristotle’s concerns are, they seem at best oblique to the really important questions he ought to be talking about. The book fails to address a whole series of clearly urgent ethical questions about constitutional change. Does virtue play a role in the politics of constitutional change? Does the goodness of the constitution play a role? ...

7. ARISTOTLE’S REGIME OF THE AMERICANS

Download PDF (127.5 KB)
pp. 109-128

The discovery of ancient texts once thought to have been irretrievably lost is a rare event. But it does happen. The discovery a few years ago of the works of Posidippus is a case in point. As far as the texts of Aristotle are concerned, the most dramatic event in modern times was the discovery, in the nineteenth century, of his Athenaion Politeia, or Regime of the Athenians. Not less dramatic is the text that follows and that I offer here for the first time both in the original Greek and in accompanying English...

8. ARISTOTLE’S POLITY TODAY

Download PDF (80.6 KB)
pp. 129-150

It’s hard to say just how much philosophy is autobiographical. Surely those philosophers who devote their lives to musing on the reality of possible worlds or the unreality of time seem to survey an arid landscape. Perhaps the territory they scan draws their gaze because of its remoteness from the world they live in. But Aristotle’s rich panorama of the world beyond the mind offers tantalizing insights into his perspective too, not confessions ala Rousseau or Augustine but vistas vividly colored by the ...

WORKS CITED

Download PDF (44.9 KB)
pp. 151-158

CONTRIBUTORS

Download PDF (29.1 KB)
pp. 159-160

INDEX LOCORUM

Download PDF (30.3 KB)
pp. 161-162

INDEX

Download PDF (82.8 KB)
pp. 163-167