Aristotle and Democracy
Overview
 Aristotle
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The Polis
Virtue
Natural Slavery
Good Government
Aristotle
 Biographical Overview
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384-322 B.C.E.
Born in Macedonia, to
wealthy parents connected to
the royal household
Studied with Plato for 17
years
Tutor to Alexander the Great
343-335 B.C.E.
335/4 returned to Athens and
founded own school – the
Lyceum
I. The Polis and the Political
Stature of Man/Woman
 The Politics is an attempt to understand the
essence of political life
 Aristotle grounds that understanding on the
facts of “real world” political life
I. The Polis and the Political
Stature of Man/Woman
“Since we see that every city is some sort of partnership, and
that every partnership is constituted for the sake of some
good (for everyone does everything for the sake of what is
held to be good), it is clear that all partnerships aim at some
good, and that the partnership that is most authoritative of all
and embraces all the others does so particularly, and aims at
the most authoritative good of all. This is what is called the
city or the political partnership” (Book I, chapter 1).
I.
The Polis and the Political
Stature of Man/Woman
 “Since we see that every city is some sort of
partnership…”
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City => association that aims at highest good
Politics => activity that happens in a city
I.
The Polis and the Political
Stature of Man/Woman
Two ideas we need to develop here:
1. Authoritative Association
2. Authoritative Good
I.
The Polis and the Political
Stature of Man/Woman
 Authoritative Association
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Every association aimed at some end
Family (Book I, chp. 2, 1252b)
 Town (Book I, chp. 2, 1252b)
 City/Polis (Book I chp. 2, 1253a)
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I. The Polis and the Political
Stature of Man/Woman
The Family
Structure
Two associations:
Male/Female
Ruler/Ruled
End of Family?
Reproduction (1st association)
“needs of daily life” (2nd association)
I. The Polis and the Political
Stature of Man/Woman
The Village
Structure
Groupings of families
End of the village?
Reproduction
“needs of daily life”
I.
The Polis and the Political
Stature of Man/Woman
The City
–SStructure
Ggroupings of villages (Book 1, chp. 2)
–EEnd of the city?
RReproduction?
“needs of daily life”?
Eend of the city = not just life or living, but living the
“good life.”
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–
–
I. The Polis and the Political
Stature of Man/Woman
 The Polis:
“The partnership arising from several villages
that is complete is the city. It reaches a level
of full self-sufficiency, so to speak; and while
coming into being for the sake of living, it
exists for the sake of living well” (Book 1,
chp. 2. 1252b).
Authoritative Association
 Authoritative Association
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The authoritative or sovereign association is
one that decides the aims of other (smaller or
constitutive) associations
Thus the polis exists prior to the individual
I. The Polis and the Political
Stature of Man/Woman
Authoritative Association
“The city is thus prior by nature to the household
and to each of us. For the whole must of necessity
be prior to the part; for if the whole is destroyed
there will not be a foot or a hand…For if the
individual when separated is not self sufficient, he
will be in a condition similar to that of the other parts
in relation to the whole” (Book 1, chp. 2, 1253b).
Back
I.
The Polis and the Political Stature
of Man/Woman
“One who is incapable of participating or who
is in need of nothing through being selfsufficient is no part of a city, and so is either
a beast or a god” (Book 1, chap. 2, 1253b).
I. The Polis and the Political
Stature of Man/Woman
Two ideas we need to develop here:
Authoritative Association
Authoritative Good
I. The Polis and the Political
Stature of Man/Woman
Authoritative Good
Three Classes of Good
Good Consequences
Good Consequences & Good in Themselves
Authoritative/Sovereign Good
I.
The Polis and the Political
Stature of Man/Woman
Good Consequences
Nothing intrinsically good about surgery. It’s good only
because of its consequences
I.
The Polis and the Political
Stature of Man/Woman
 Good Consequences & Good in Themselves
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For example: vision
They have good results and they’re good
Would rather have vision than not have it (unlike
surgery) and the consequences of its possession
are also good
Authoritative Good
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Authoritative/Sovereign Good
Supreme Goods
Things just good in and of themselves
Not a means to any other good
For example: happiness
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Happiness is that state where we have all that we should
have.
Back
I.
The Polis and the Political
Stature of Man/Woman
 Virtue is that aspect of something that enables it to
develop itself and to achieve its final end.
 Virtuous person is one with properties that enable
him/her to develop fully human capacities.
 Good polis, then, is one which fosters virtue.
 Polis is the authoritative good since it allows for the
development of our fully human capacities.
I.
The Polis and the Political
Stature of Man/Woman
“From these things it is evident, then, that the
city belongs among the things that exist by
nature, and that man is by nature a political
animal” (Book 1, chp. 2, 1253a)
I.
The Polis and the Political
Stature of Man/Woman
 Aristotle’s View of the Polis vs. Modern
Conceptions
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Today we view politics as a means of insuring
private good
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We use politics for selfish ends
 For Aristotle, man is a political animal,
political life is part of the individual
I.
The Polis and the Political
Stature of Man/Woman
 Politics means getting together in public and
deciding what we ought to do
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this activity allows for development of virtue
where virtue is a public activity
How do we know the essence of human species?
“Everything is defined by its task and its power…”
(Book 1, chp. 2)
Need to develop this idea more fully
II. Teleology
1. Everything in nature is ordered, exists for a
purpose
2. Everything has a nature, and built into each nature
is an end (telos)
3. Acorn example, again
4. How to know end?
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Observation
5. How to know what to observe?
II. Teleology
“It is in things whose condition is according
to nature that one ought particularly to
investigate what is by nature, not in things
that are defective. Thus the human being to
be studied is one whose state is best both in
body and in soul…” (Book 1, chp. 5, 1254a)
II. Teleology
 Man -- in right sort of polis -- can grow to be “full”
human where “full” means achieving full human
potential
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Contrast with contemporary conceptions where politics is
private; a means to secure private interest
For Aristotle, the private is simply a means to sustain
politics. Politics is what is really important, so need to
subordinate private life to public life
II. Teleology
Politics is a public activity
indeed it is the activity
which distinguishes us
from other social animals
What is politics?
Why is it special?
II. Teleology
 Politics is:
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Activity where people decide and then act on the
decision
Based on rational persuasion, not coercion
(logos =speaking = only possible with other humans)
 Our humanity is only attainable in political setting
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II. Teleology
“One who is incapable of participating or
who is in need of nothing through being selfsufficient is no part of a city, and so is either
a beast or a god” (Book 1, chp. 2, 1253a).
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Conducted only between equals
II. Teleology
Our humanity is attainable only in the polis
Raises question: who should be included in politics?
III. Natural Slavery
 Recall Point II.1:
Nature has an order
 Order is hierarchical
The Scale of Being
pond scum
The Scale of Being
insects
pond scum
The Scale of Being
reptiles
insects
pond scum
The Scale of Being
mammals
reptiles
insects
pond scum
The Scale of Being
human beings
mammals
reptiles
insects
pond scum
III. Natural Slavery
 Why should we suddenly become
standardless as we cross human threshold?
 No reason for egalitarianism
 Not everybody is able to take care of
themselves so ...
III. Natural Slavery
 Slavery, under the right conditions, is natural
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Slavery is just insofar as some people are slaves
by nature
 Slavery indispensable to good polis
 Politics is a leisure activity
III. Natural Slavery
 Unless we have one class permanently engaged in
producing the sustenance necessary for life, nobody
is able to attain the good life and thus to achieve the
proper end of the species.
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Question of how to distribute burdens of labor and
leisure
Slaves do all the manual work, masters develop into
“full” human beings
Good polis needs slaves
The Good Polis
 What is the good polis?
 How would we determine the nature of the
good polis?
Aristotle’s Regime Types
“End” of Regime
Public Good
Size
Of
Regime
back
Private Gain
Monarchy
Tyranny
Aristocracy
Oligarchy
Polity
Democracy
Aristotle’s Regime Types
“End” of Regime
Public Good
Size
Of
Regime
Private Gain
Monarchy
Tyranny
Aristocracy
Oligarchy
Polity
Democracy
Aristotle’s Regime Types
“End” of Regime
Public Good
Size
Of
Regime
Private Gain
Monarchy
Tyranny
Aristocracy
Oligarchy
Polity
Democracy
Aristotle’s Regime Types
“End” of Regime
Public Good
Size
Of
Regime
Private Gain
Monarchy
Tyranny
Aristocracy
Oligarchy
Polity
Democracy
Aristotle’s Regime Types
“End” of Regime
Public Good
Size
Of
Regime
Private Gain
Monarchy
Tyranny
Aristocracy
Oligarchy
Polity
Democracy
Aristotle’s Regime Types
“End” of Regime
Public Good
Size
Of
Regime
Private Gain
Monarchy
Tyranny
Aristocracy
Oligarchy
Polity
Democracy
Aristotle’s Regime Types
“End” of Regime
Public Good
Size
Of
Regime
Private Gain
Monarchy
Tyranny
Aristocracy
Oligarchy
Polity
Democracy
Aristotle’s Polity
 Monarchy?
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No: we want the
highest level of
communal activity
possible. Monarchy
won’t allow that
Aristotle’s Polity
 Democracy?
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No: remember our
inegalitarian
understanding of nature;
therefore unlikely that
the virtues will be
distributed evenly
through the population
Aristotle’s Polity
 Aristocracy?
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Yes.
Why?
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Allows for public
participation in reason
Power will be diffused
through the group rather
than concentrated in a single
individual
Likely that will be able to
have moral virtue or
goodness in this restricted
group of people
Aristotle’s Polity
 Evolution of the polis problem
 How to prevent the decay or at least stave off
the decay.
 How do we account for the collapse of these
regime types?
Aristotle’s Polity
 Answer?
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The existence of factions within the body politic
 Why do factions arise?
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Need to re-examine the organization of the polis
Aristotle’s Polity
 What is the first necessity of the polis?
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Need to sustain mere life in order to begin to
pursue the good life
 But
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The production of mere life creates class
differences which makes pursuit of the good
life untenable
 How or Why?
Aristotle’s Polity
 If we assume that:
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Scarcity exists, and that
Talents and luck are unevenly distributed in the
population, then
 In the division of labor of the city, we will
inevitably get an inegalitarian social system,
with the population divided into distinct and
competing classes
Aristotle’s Polity
 The Power of the Rich:
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The wealthy have a natural common interest in
protecting wealth
Oligarchic faction is inevitable
Claim to power?
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Since wealth is necessary for polis to run, and wealth
is built on inequality, it is permissible to treat unequals
as unequals.
Aristotle’s Polity
 Power of the Poor?
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In a city, likely to have many more people who
are poor rather than rich
Power of numbers
Ideological claim?
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Since demos (the people) defend the city and the
wealthy who live there, then each group contributes
equally important functions to the polis, so that justice
then means allowing everyone into the ruling class
Aristotle’s Polity
 How to settle between the two?
 Aristotle argues that at one level, both groups
seem to be right, but that at a deeper level
both are wrong
 Both forget that the aim of the polis is not
simply mere life, but the good life (III, ix,
1280b29-1281a2)
Aristotle’s Polity
 The city needs an aristocratic faction
 Not necessarily wealthy, but a small group
concerned with the good (moral virtue)
 Unfortunately, such people are relatively
powerless (not necessarily rich and not a
majority)
Aristotle’s Polity
 Life of the polis will degenerate to the
Lowest Common Denominator (pursuit of
mere life) where either the demos or the
oligarchs rule, and pursuit of the good life is
lost
 So… need to determine how to control
factions
Aristotle’s Polity
 His solution?
“The first and obvious point to make is that if
indeed we do understand the causes of their [i.e.,
Constitutions’] destruction, then we understand
also the causes of their preservation. For
opposites are productive of opposites, and
destruction is the opposite of preservation” (V,
viii, 1307b26)
Aristotle’s Polity
 His solution?
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Given that we have two different factions, what can we
do?
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Options are constrained by the raw material we have to work
with
Don’t allow officeholders a financial gain in holding office:
“It is most important in every constitution that the legal and other
administrative arrangements should be such that holding office is
not a source of profit”
-- V, viii, 1308b3I
Implication: only oligarchs will rule
Pay people to vote
 Demos can control the rulers
The Polity of Mixed
Government
 People will choose their rulers on the basis of
which are the “best” oligarchs
 Aristotle argues that we need to try to mix
the oligarchic and democratic elements
together so that once we assemble the
government, it is neither democratic nor
oligarchic
The Polity of Mixed
Government
 In this way we can try to get the oligarchs to
act more like aristocrats
 Why?
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In order to gain votes they’ll need to appeal to
the interests of the other class. They’ll need to
offer a vision of the good life for the city as a
whole.
The Polity of Mixed
Government
 So Aristotle’s vision of the best regime is the
polity – a political association which attempts
to form a just regime with less than perfect
people
Machiavelli
 Niccolò Machiavelli (1469
– 1527)
 European Renaissance
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Declining power of Church
Advancing in Science, Arts,
Literature
 The Prince written in 1513
during period of political
exile
Copernican Universe
Machiavelli
 Machiavelli & Florence
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Medici family rules city
French forces invade, set up
republican government
Machiavelli gets role in
government, ends up as high
civil servant, some
diplomatic missions and
military operations
Machiavelli
 Machiavelli & Florence
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Spanish defeat the French, and reinstall the Medici
Machiavelli is arrested, tortured, and eventually exiled to
his country home beyond the city walls
During this period (he’s in his 40s) he begins his
philosophical/political writing, including The Prince and
The Discourses
en ordinary morality is not binding and he/she/they can
pretty much do what they must to stay in power