ARISTOTLE’S THEORY OF
HUMAN PERSON, ETHICS
& POLITICS
BY
SUDARMINTA
THE HUMAN PERSON
• The composite substance is a natural body
endowed with life, the principle of this life is ‘the
soul.’ The unity of the human person is
emphasized as the unity of soul & body as form &
matter (hylemorphism)
• The body must be as matter to the soul, while the
soul is as form to act to the body.
• The soul is thus the cause and principle of the
living body, (a) as source of movement, (b) as
final cause, and (c) as the real substance (i.e.
formal cause) of animate bodies.
THE HUMAN PERSON
• The soul is the actuality of an organic body; the
soul works through the bodily organ.
• The doctrine of soul as the form of the body 
difficulty to account for the immortality of the
soul; one possibility if by referring to his doctrine
of the active intellect whose function is not
dependent upon the body.
• Rejects Pythagoras’ & Plato’s semi-religious
doctrine of reincarnation while avoiding the purely
materialist explanation of sensation & thought
propounded by Empedocles & the Atomists.
Faculties/Powers of the Soul
• Instead of speaking of 3 parts of the soul like Plato,
Aristotle used the term “faculty” or “dynameis” of
the soul
• The lowest form of soul is the nutritive or
vegetative soul, found in all living beings.
• The higher form of soul: the sensitive soul, which
exercises the three powers of sense-perception,
desire, and local motion, found only in animals.
• The specifically human soul is the rational soul,
which unites in itself the powers of the lower souls,
but possesses nous, the power of speculative
thought and of practical deliberation.
ETHICS
• Teleological in nature: conducive to human
good; what is the good for man?
• >< Platonic Ideas: there is different good for
different classes, different aim for different
types of action
• The aim ethical study is practical, not
theoretical
• Human action is the subject-matter of
ethics, human action cannot be determined
with mathematical exactitude.
ETHICS
• The end of life is happiness (eudaimonia). It
consists in activity according to virtue or in
virtuous activity, understanding by virtue both the
intellectual and the moral virtues.
• We become virtuous by doing virtuous acts.; good
character is developed by doing virtuous acts
• Virtue is a mean between two extremes:
Cowardice – Courage – Foolhardiness.
• Virtue is neither natural nor contrary to nature; by
nature we are adapted to receive it, and it is made
perfect by habit.
• The virtuous person is the one who possesses
practical wisdom, the ability to see what is the
right thing to do in the circumstances.
ETHICS
• Virtue is a disposition to choose according to a
rule based upon the judgment of practical wisdom
(phronesis)
• Moral action presupposes freedom; only voluntary
action incurs responsibility to the agent.
• Aristotle’s analysis of moral process: (1) the agent
desires an end; (2) the agent deliberates, seeing
that B is the means to A (the end to be obtained),
C the means to B, etc, until (3) he perceives that
some particular means near to the end or remote
from it, as the case may be, is something that he
can do here and now; (4) the agent chooses this
means that presents itself to him as practicable
here and now; (5) he does the act in question.
POLITICS
• For Aristotle, ethics is part of politics: dealing
with how to live a good life
• Like Plato, Aristotle was firmly convinced of the
positive and educative function of the State.
• The end of the State is the supreme good of human
beings, their moral and intellectual life.
• Since human being is a political animal (zoon
politicon), itt is only in the State that human
beings can live the good life in any full sense, and
since the good life is their natural end, the State
must be called a natural society.
THE STATE
• Human beings differ in intellectual and physical
capacities, and are thereby fitted for different
positions in society.
• Slavery is founded in nature. The master should
not abuse his authority, since the interests of
master and slave are the same.
• Aristotle was against the practice of money
lending for interest (“Money was intended to be
used in exchange, but not to increase at interest”)
• He rejected Plato’s picture of the ideal State: such
radical changes would not be desirable. The notion
of communism would lead to disputes,
inefficiency, etc. The enjoyment of property is a
source of pleasure.
THE STATE
• The rule of many good men, aristocracy, is better
than monarchy.
• Aristocracy is perhaps too high an ideal for the
contemporary State, and so he advocates “Polity,”
practically equivalent to rule by the middle class,
and more or less a half-way house between
Oligarchy and Democracy.
• Rulers should have no opportunity of making
money for themselves out of the offices they hold;
they should be loyal to the constitution, have the
capacity for administrative work and integrity of
character.
THE STATE
• The State must be large enough to be selfsufficing, but not so large that order and good
government are rendered impracticable.
• The territorial extent of the State should not be so
small that a leisure life is impossible nor yet so
large that luxury is encouraged.
• Citizens: farmers & artisans are necessary, but
they will not enjoy citizen rights. Only the
warriors will be citizens in the full sense.
• Like Plato, Aristotle attached great importance to
education of statesman: the body is to be trained
for the sake of the soul & appetites for the sake of
the reason