Aristotle 's Views On Politics

The Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle 's key study of morality and the final goal of human life, has for many years been a popular and persuasive book. It offers the modern reader many useful insights into human desires and behavior despite being thousands of years old. The overarching theme behind this book is Aristotle 's assertion that there are no recognized unconditional moral standards and that every ethical theory must take into consideration an understanding of psychology and knowing that behavior comes from the realities of human nature and how it affects daily life. Additionally, the book echoes Aristotle 's accomplishments in other areas of philosophy and is a good display of his methodological thought process, which is widely considered to be the root of all modern science examination.

Aristotle seems to be primarily concerned to discover and refine the moral standards by which human beings should be governed. What laws are to be used to establish and maintain those standards depends on the good sense of the community and the prudence of its leaders, including its poets and other educators. In particular, his views on the connection between the well-being of the political community and that of the citizens who make it up, his belief that citizens must actively participate in politics if they are to be happy and virtuous, and his analysis of what causes and prevents revolution within political communities have been a source of inspiration for many contemporary

     With the possible exception of Plato, Aristotle is the most influential philosopher in the history of logical thought. Logic into this century was basically Aristotelian logic. Aristotle dominated the study of the natural sciences until modern times. Aristotle, in some aspect, was the founder of biology; Charles Darwin considered him as the most important contributor to the subject. Aristotle’s Poetic, the first work of literary notice, had a string influence on the theory and practice of modern drama. Aristotle’s great influence is due to the fact that he seemed to offer a system, which although lacked in certain respects, was as a whole matchless in its extent.

Swiss-French writer Benjamin Constant and ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle offer conflicting viewpoints concerning the merits and possibilities of ancient Greek democracy. Aristotle’s political theory attempts to justify his city-state’s political structure by providing a model of the common good, or Chief Aim, his end goal for Athenian democracy. He believed Athenians could reach the Chief Aim as a society by individually learning to be virtuous and then instilling laws and morals based on these ideals. In his lecture, The Liberty of the Ancients Compared with that of the Moderns, Constant highlights that the individual liberties protected in a modern representative democracy are much more important than the political liberties that one was given in antiquity. Constant illustrates that while some ideas of ancient Greek democracy are precious, Aristotle’s political theory is not an obtainable reality and it was beneficial that modern democracies transitioned to a system that protects individual liberty.

The United States is known for its many liberties to all, liberties that lead to all sorts of bad according to Socrates and Aristotle. Plato-Socrates in The Republic and Aristotle in Politics criticize democracy, a form of government that tries to equalize all. Centuries have passed and many of the democratic elements described in their works apply to current democratic regimes in particular the United States.

Aristotle was a well-known and respected Greek philosopher. Some of his philosophies have been time less and are still around and being debated. He primarily pondered on what is a good person and a good life? His philosophy focuses on these questions. For Aristotle in order to know whether a person/ life is good, then we first need to understand what is the goal or purpose of that person/life. Aristotle believes that there are virtues, which are good habits or skills that allow us to live a good life. This is called the virtue theory, which aims to achieve the ultimate objective to a good life, which is happiness. He however does state that virtues should not be at extremes, and that one should try to achieve the idea of the "golden mean". In his view, morality is based on these virtues rather then right and wrong. Virtues define our person, our character while the right or wrong are only

In Aristotle's Politics, he focuses much on the regimes of an oligarchy and of a democracy. Democracies exists when the free and poor, being a majority, have authority to rule, and have an equal share in the city. Oligarchies exists when the few wealthy and better born have authority and grant benefits in proportion to a person's wealth (1280a:10-30;1290a:5-10).

Plato and Aristotle are philosophers that both have an idea of an ideal state but they have their differences. While there are benefits to each of their views on politics and society, there are also many negative things about their views. Some of their negative views were realistic at one point in time but few are the same in today 's society. Although I don 't fully agree with either philosopher, I would have to side with Aristotle overall.

I will now start with the analysis of the relevance in an ideal state of ruling and being ruled. Aristotle’s view on this is clear, he says that citizens should rule and be ruled in turn. He claims that those who rule and those who obey are the same. At this level, therefore, Aristotle seems to praise equality. He says:

In Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics Book: On the Good he comes to the conclusion that the good of man is the active exercise of his soul’s faculties in conformity with excellence or virtue. In order to understand how he came to this conclusion, we must retrace and further understand his arguments.

Aristotle opens his argument with the statement: “the good has been well described as that at which everything aims”(1.1.1094a2). This premise means that all actions aim at an end that is good. Moreover, through this definition of good, there are numerous goods corresponding to numerous actions. How can we know which good is the best, or highest good? Aristotle introduces

In "The Politics", Aristotle would have us believe that man by nature is a political animal. In other words, Aristotle seems to feel that the most natural thing for men to do is to come together in some form of political association. He then contends that this political association is essential to the pursuit of the good life. Finally he attempts to distinguish what forms of political association are most suitable to the pursuit of this good life. In formulating a critique of "The Politics", we shall first examine his claims as to what is natural to man and whether the criterion of the natural is sufficient to demonstrate virtue. We shall then examine what it is about political association that

In Aristotle’s Rhetoric, Aristotle argues that rhetoric should be used to portray the truth and to persuade people to follow the truth, not to manipulate the audience. According to Aristotle, rhetoric is both a natural method of persuasion and something that can be learned. Aristotle says, “ordinary people do this either at random or through practice and from acquired habit” (Rhetoric). There are three modes of persuasion, logos, ethos, and pathos, each used in a unique way. “The modes of persuasion are the only true constituents of the art: everything else is merely accessory,” according to Aristotle (Ibid). For rhetoric to be effective each mode of persuasion must be used correctly - ethos to exhibit ethics, logos

Political theory is the study of concepts that allows for the analytical study of relationships between political institutions. Over the centuries, political theorists have established renditions of what political theory is. This essay will focus on Plato, Nietzsche, and Aristotle, and their works, which respectively define the concepts of the common good and the significance of philosophers to the welfare of the state, self-deceiving intellect and the power of authority over our intellectual lives, and the concepts of interdependency and the importance of virtue and happiness for a successful political framework.

Not everyone will agree with Aristotle's political theory, but it is essential to understand the principals that underline the new political theories. Aristotle's politics is one of the most influential books of political philosophy. His main ideology consists in that a man is by nature a political animal because he can reason and communicate with others, therefore, has the potential to alter or change his living conditions for better because he can recognize the difference from right or wrong. Aristotle is proposing that a man with reason has to base his approach towards politics on the fundamental concept of good for human beings. However, based on the evaluation of modern politics, we can conclude that the idea of politics aiming at