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/indexAristotle.html
Similarities/Differences
with Plato?
Plato
Aristotle
Best Ideal form of government
(kingship)
Best ideal (kingship or
aristocracy) and existent (polity)
forms of governments
Rationalism (deduction)
Comparative method
Forms/Ideas
Substance/categories
Nature (fixed)
(realization of) nature
Comprehensive understanding
of constitution
Constitution: “arrangement of
magistracies in a state” (100)
Happiness as a quality of the
whole
Happiness: “realization and
perfect practice of virtue” (97)
Critique of property and the
family
Property is good (and the familiy
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
Mere Life
(or Bare Life)
(voice)
Bios
Vs.
the Good Life
(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
Many
Aristocracy
Constitutional
Government
(olygarchy +
democracy)
Oligarchy
Democracy
Cycle

Kingship
Tyranny
Aristocracy
Democracy
Polity
Oligarchy
Best and Worst Forms
Kingship (the best
regime, ideally)
Tyranny
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
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•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Substance (fundamental entities)
Quality
Quantity
Relation
Where
When
Position
Having
Action
Passion
Redeveloped by Kant in the 18th century