Transcript Slide 1

Some Moans:
1.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Voice! Is it clear who is making the claim in question.
Happiness is an inclusive end.
Ackrill argues that happiness is an inclusive end.
Ackrill claims that Aristotle conceives happiness as an inclusive end.
Ackrill claims that the best way to interpret Aristotle’s argument in
NE, is by construing happiness as an inclusive end.
2.
Don’t emulate! Use your own words.
“As is well known, the various participants of the nomos physis debate
from the pre-Socratics onwards…”
“There are a variety of translation choices of the Greek word tuche, none
of which is satisfactory…”
“This is one of the only occurrences of this verb in the entire Aristotelian
corpus…”
3.
Always back up your claims with evidence from the text.
1.
2.
3.
Read more widely (and carefully).
Think more, before you write.
Write more carefully. (Re-read and rewrite.)
Ackrill or Aristotle: The Politics ed. Stephen Everson,
CUP 1988. Trevor Saunders
Book I, 1-6, 13.
Book III What is a citizen; the relation between citizen
and state; vi criterion of good regime; discussion
of the different regimes.
Book VII 1-5, 7-10, 13-15 The best state. Happiness and
the good life for individuals and the polis;
Book VIII, 1 only.
1.Synopsis of the Aristotle’s Politics
I.
Introduction. The Origins of the Polis. Natural Orders
and Hierarchies. Economy and Trade.
II.
Candidates for Good and Bad Constitutions or
Regimes (of city-states)
III &IV Description and Systematic Classification of Good
and Bad regimes
IV
Problems with various kinds of demokratia. 11&12
role of the middle classes.
V
(Largely repeats IV) Ch. 9 only loyalty and education.
Causes of revolution.
VI
Of demokratia, oligarchy and the distribution of
offices. 2-5 Features of demokratia
VII
The Ideal State. Happiness and the good life for
individuals and the polis;
VIII
Education of the Citizens
Every polis is a community of some kind
and every community is established with a
view to some good; for everyone always
acts in order to obtain that which they think
good. But if all communitiesaim at some
good, the state or political community,
which is the highest (most magisterial) of
all, and which embraces all the rest, aims
at a good which is greater and more
magisterial than any other. (1252a1
Jowett)
1. Political Science is about the highest good or the
happiness/eudaimonia of the city.
1253b30
1281a1
1280a31
1328a35
“the polis ...originates in the bare needs of life and
continues in existence for the sake of the good life”
“The telos of the city-state is the good life.”
“a polis exists for the sake of the good life and not for
the sake of mere life.”
“for a polis is a community of equals aiming at the best
life possible”
Politics – ta politika
Political Science – e politike techne
Citizen – polites
Polis = a form of association or community that exists for the sake of
some (common) good. A city state.
2.2 What is a polis? Or Why is the polis as it is?
1. material cause of the polis
location, space
human beings – (their needs,
desires, instincts), walls, stones,
water, harbour
2. moving cause of the polis
(social instinct + economic
need?) actions of the lawmaker demiurge, human reason, logos
3. formal cause of the polis
the constitution/régime 1276b1
laws and practices
4. final cause of the polis
economic self-sufficiency 1253a1
the good life III, 9 1280 b25
eudaimonia I, 2, 1252 b30
1253a1
Besides the final cause and end of a thing is
the best, and to be self-sufficing is the
end and the best.
1253b30
“the polis ...originates in the bare needs of life
and continues in existence for the sake
of the good life.”
1281a1
“The telos of the city-state is the good life.”
1280a 31
“a polis exists for the sake of the good life and
not for the sake of mere life.”
1328a35
“for a polis is a community of equals aiming at
the best life possible”
Recall the idea of the ethics that happiness is mainly up to
us. (So are character and virtue.) Like ethics (the doctrine
of good character) which falls under it, political (and
legislative) science is:
“the philosophy of human affairs” 1181 b15
(ē peri ta anthrōpina philosophia).
This means that it has a properly defined object domain.
Not every object is appropriate object or practical
deliberation. Why?
Because: “We deliberate only about what is up to us and in
the reach of our actions.” (bouleuometha de peri tōn eph
hēmin kai praktōn) NE 1112a3-
Not Open
Open
eternal and necessary things
temporal and contingent things
what is not up to us
what is within our practical
control
what a rational person would
what an idiot might deliberate
i.e. nature, (phusis) necessity (anankē) everything that works by human
chance/luck (tuchē).
mind or human agency
other people’s affairs
our own affairs
“we do not deliberate about all human affairs. No Spartan deliberates
about how the Scythians might have the best political system.Rather
each group of human beings deliberates about the actions they can
do.” NE 1112a28
Problem:
1. According to Aristotle political deliberation is about all
those things in the realm of human affairs that are up to us
and are open to political practical deliberation.
But also:
2. According to Aristotle the state exists by nature, and man
is by nature a political nature.
2. Has been taken to imply 3.
3. Human beings – citizens – are parts of a larger organic
social whole – the polis.
This has been taken to imply a very illiberal view of
citizenship, and even implicit totalitarianism.
“Further, the polis is by nature clearly prior to the family and to the
individual, since the whole is of necessity prior to the part; for
example if the whole body be destroyed, there will be no foot or
hand, except homonymously, as we might speak of a stone hand;
for when destroyed the hand will be no better than that. But things
are defined by their function and power; and we ought not to say
that they are the same when they no longer have their proper
quality, but only that they are homonymous. The proof that the state
is a creation of nature and prior to the individual is that the
individuaol, when isolated, is not self-sufficing; and therefore he is
like a part in relation to the whole. But he who is unable to live in
society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself,
must be either a beast or a God, he is no part of the polis.”
(1253a19)
“the whole is naturally superior to the part.” 1288a25.
“We are speaking of the best form of government, i.e.
that under which the polis will be most happy…”
1328a34.
On this reading then Aristotle looks like a theorist of
positive freedom. The self-determination of the whole
political community is paramount, and the (negative)
freedom of its individual citizens is of only secondary
importance.
Is this an inconsistency. Can this inconsistency be
reconciled? Can it be the case both
a) that the polis exists by nature.
b) that political matters are open to practical deliberation.
Why does Aristtotle claim a) and what does he mean by it?
When several villages are united in a single complete
community, large enough to be nearly or quite sufficing,
the polis comes into existence, originating in mere life,
and existing essentially for the sake of a good life. And
therefore, if the earlier forms of society are natural, so is
the state, for it is the end of them, and the nature of a
thing is its end. For what each thing is when fully
developed, we call its nature, whether we are speaking
of a man a horse or a household. Besides the final cause
and end of a thing is the best, and to be self-sufficing is
the end and the best.
Hence it is evident that the state is a creation of nature,
and that man is by nature a political animal. 1252b281253a2
The meaning of “by nature” (phusei).
1. (context: the so -called nomos phusis debate)
by nature (phusei) =
not by convention (nomōi)
2. By a process which when left
not by chance
unhindered leads always or for
the most part to a certain result.
What is usual – or the norm
unusual/anomolous
EE “nature s the cause of what is the same and for the most
part, chance of the contrary.”
Phys A thing is due to nature…impediment.” 199b15
3.
Coming about under its own
steam or automatically.
by artifice, by the
human hand
4. Context Aristotle’s teleology)
In accordance with the final end not in accordance
or the perfection of something:
with the final end.
the telos of human life – eudaimonia.
The state exists by nature, then, in several different
senses. It comes into existence:
1. because of man’s sexual/metaphysical urges (not by
choice). 1252a30
2. Because of man’s instinct for self-preservation (also
not by choice) 1252a31
3. Because it meets man’s economic needs (among
other things). N.B. 1280a 31 + 1280 b25.
4. Because it satisfies human beings instinctive
fundamental sociality – the desire for human company
etc.
1253 a 30 “A social instinct (hormē) is implanted in all men by
nature....”
1278b 20 ”...man is by nature a political animal. And therefore, men
even when they do not require one another’s help, desire to live
together, although they are also brought together by their common
interest insofar as they each attain a measure of well-being.”
All these things probably count among the moving causes of the
polis. But they are also part of what maintains it in existence – its
nature.
5. Because living in a polis is the way in which human
beings reach their final end - eudaimonia
NB It looks like The Polis has two final ends – self-sufficiency and
eudaimonia
Besides the final cause and end of a thing is the best, and to be selfsufficing is the end and the best.’ 1253a1
Complex function: Economic self-sufficiency, capable of being
defended militarily, and being socially self-reproducing.
“the polis ...originates in the bare needs of life and continues in
existence for the sake of the good life” 1253b30
Why cannot one be virtuous alone? For several reasons
i. Many virtues e.g. generosity magnanimity can only be exercised
among other people.
ii. Virtues can only be acquired through socialisation and education –
in family and then through habits acquired through living according
to custom and law.
iii Eudaimonia has certain material threshold conditions that can only
be met by living in an economically self-sufficient political
community.
iv One has to have friendship and love to be happy.
v On one reading eudaimonia takes the form of the practical life, life of
the statesman, of which a necessary part is the activity of holding
office.