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246 Pages·1991·15.5 MB·English
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CITIZENS AND STATESMEN CITIZENS AND STATESMEN A Study of Aristotle's Politics Mary P. Nichols ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC. Lanham' Boulder' New York· Toronto' Oxford ROWMAN Be LITTLEFIELD PUBUSHERS, INC. Published in the United States of America by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 Copyright © 1992 by Rowman Be Littlefield Publishers, Inc. AU rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. British Cataloging in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Nichols, Mary P. Citizens and Statesmen: A Study ofAristotlc's Politics / Mary P. Nichols. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Aristotle. Politics. 2. Aristotle-Contributions in political science. I. Title. JC71.A7N49 1991 320.1-dc20 91-21326 elP ISBN 0-8476-7702-8 (cloth, alk. paper) ISBN 0-8476-7703-0 (pbk., alk. paped Printed in the United States of America eQ TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. CCOONNTTEENNTTSS PPrreeffaaccee vviiii IInnttrroodduuccttiioonn 1 CChhaapptteerr 11 TThhee OOrriiggiinnss ooff tthhee CCiittyy 1133 BBooookkss II aanndd IIII oofft thhee PPoolliittiiccss TThhee NNaattuurraallnneessss ooff tthhee CCiittyy.. SSllaavveerryy,, AAccqquuiissiittiioonn,, aanndd tthhee FFaammiillyy:: TThhee OOrriiggiinn ooff tthhee CCiittyy iinn BBooddyy.. TThhiinnkkiinngg aabboouutt PPoolliittiiccss:: TThhee OOrriiggiinn ooff tthhee CCiittyy iinn TThhoouugghhtt.. TThhee PPootteennttiiaallss aanndd DDaannggeerrss ooff PPoolliittiiccss.. CChhaapptteerr 22 FFiinnddiinngg aa PPllaaccee ffoorr BBeeaasstt aanndd GGoodd 5533 BBooookk IIIIII ooff tthhee PPoolliittiiccss AArriissttoottllee''ss DDeeffiinniittiioonn ooff CCiittiizzeennsshhiipp.. AArriissttoottllee''ss DDeeffeennssee ooff tthhee MMaannyy.. OOvveerraallll KKiinnggsshhiipp aanndd OOuuttssttaannddiinngg VViirrttuuee.. BBee yyoonndd TTrraaggeeddyy.. CChhaapptteerr 33 TThhrrnniinngg RReeggiimmeess iinnttoo PPoolliittiieess 8855 BBooookkss IIVll,: lVl:, aanndd VVII ooff tthhee PPoolliittiiccss TThhee SSttaatteessmmaann''ss EEnnddss.. DDeemmooccrraacciieess,, OOlliiggaarrcchhiieess,, AArriissttoocc rraacciieess,, aanndd PPoolliittiieess.. RReeffoorrmmiinngg TTyyrraannnnyy.. DDeennyyiinngg tthhee DDeess ppoottiissmm ooff NNaattuurree.. RReeffoorrmmiinngg DDeemmooccrraaccyy.. SSttaatteessmmaannsshhiipp aanndd FFrreeeeddoomm.. CChhaapptteerr 44 TThhee BBeesstt RReeggiimmee aanndd tthhee LLiimmiittss ooff PPoolliittiiccss 112255 BBooookkss VVIIII aanndd VVIIIIII ooff tthhee PPoolliittiiccss TThhee BBeesstt WWaayy ooff LLiiffee.. TThhee BBeesstt RReeggiimmee.. EEdduuccaattiioonn.. TThhee MMooddeerraattiioonn ooff AArriissttoottllee''ss PPoolliittiiccaall SScciieennccee.. vvii CCoonntteennttss CChhaapptteerr 55 CCiittiizzeennss,, SSttaatteessmmeenn,, aanndd MMooddeerrnn PPoolliittiiccaall TThheeoorryy 116699 EEnnddnnootteess 117777 WWoorrkkss FFrreeqquueennttllyy CCiitteedd 222233 IInnddeexx 222277 AAbboouutt tthhee AAuutthhoorr 223355 PREFACE M y first introduction to political philosophy in graduate school was a course on Plato's Gorgias. Like many others, I experi enced the profound effect of Joseph Cropsey's instruction, an effect somewhat like what Meno experienced when he encountered Socra tes-an inability to answer even apparently simple questions, an effect that he attributed to Socrates' wizardry. As students, we entered a world of immense beauty and awe, where questions touching the essence of human life-of knowledge and virtue, of individual excel lence and common good, of philosophy and politics-were directly before us. We were filled with a desire to engage in a life-long task of exploring the possible answers, their implications and ramifications, even if we could never come to any final resolution. The attraction of Socrates' siren charms was not that of a youthful idealism, which provided as Socrates did for Glaucon a vision of perfection, a world in which there was no conflict, for example, between the just and the good. To the contrary, it was the vision of such conflicts, essential in nature and inescapable in human life, that philosophy revealed. If the philosophic effect of this vision was endless toil, the political effect was serene resignation. My first book, Socrates and the Political Community: An Ancient Debate, explores Plato's defense of this philosophic life represented by Socrates, against the common sense complaint of Aristophanes. Socratic philosophy, the poet thought, draws its adherents away from families and political communities, and the deeds of ordinary life in which they can find happiness. Although Plato replied to Aristophanes by showing how Socrates addressed concerns of politics and justice, he too acknowledged the conflict between philosophy and politics, and the irreconcilable differences between philosophers and the rest of humanity. It is this debate between Aristophanes and Plato that led me to vii viii Preface Aristotle. Like Aristophanes, Aristotle criticized Socrates for being insufficiently political, and for neglecting the full potential of human association, in families, political communities, and friendships. Like Plato, on the other hand, Aristotle defended the theoretical life of philosophy as the best life. He demonstrated its activity, especially in his political theory, in philosophizing about human affairs, and thereby acknowledged his part in a community with other human beings. I concluded Socrates and the Political Community with an analy sis of Book II of Aristotle's Politics, where he suggests through his criticism of Socrates a different understanding of the tension between philosophy and politics-an understanding based on their mutual need and the possibility of their mutual benefit. Philosophy is completed by becoming political philosophy and by engaging in a kind of statesman ship in an attempt to improve political life. Its political activity be comes a source of knowledge of the limits and potentials of human nature. Political communities, in tum, are completed by philosophy and by approaching their highest potentials when they are directed by thought. Citizens and Statesmen, which is an analysis of the Politics as a whole, explores this community between thought and action, philoso phy and politics, as a kind of political rule, the shared rule that Aristotle associates with politics. The community between the philos opher and the city is a version of that between statesmen and citizens, as they rule and are ruled in tum. Citizens and Statesmen thus examines the meaning of Aristotle's argument that human beings are by nature political animals. While Aristotle's thought does full justice to the world of beauty and awe that Plato's philosophy reveals, it does not separate that world from ordinary life, just as it does not view the philosopher as separate from the rest of humanity. Indeed, it is ordinary life that is of immense beauty and the source of awe. This is because there is a kind of commOn good, so that the good and the just, the individual and other human beings, while they thankfully do not become one, can at least hold hands. The effect of this vision is less serene resignation than hopeful, if restrained, activism. I would like to thank those who forced me to improve this book by their helpful criticisms: Daniel Mahoney, for his detailed comments On the manuscript at its early stages; Susan Benfield, for her editing skills and for making me a better writer; and the anonymous readers of the manuscript, especially one to whom I am indebted for countless refinements of my argument. A generous grant from the Earhart Foundation allowed me to complete the manuscript, for which I am Preface IX grateful. My husband David in all senses made this book possible-his criticisms, his encouragement, and his constant reminders that philos ophy should not be isolated in the clouds, but address human beings. It is this simple truth about human nature that is at the heart of this book.

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Two important criticisms of contemporary liberalism turn to Aristotle's political thought for support that which advocates participatory democracy, and that sympathetic to the rule of a virtuous or philosophic elite. In this commentary on Aristotle's politics the author explores how Aristotle offers
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