Aristotle s Views On Politics - 980 Words

Politics is a political philosophical work by Aristotle, a fourth century Greek Philosopher, logician and scientist. Along with his teacher Plato, Aristotle is considered as one of the most influential ancient thinkers of political theory in western civilization. Therefore, it is important to understand the gist of his work Politics from our perspective. Influenced by Plato’s Republic and Laws, Politics presents synthesis of lifetime political thoughts and observations. The philosopher attempts to answer many questions such as; the relation between states and people, harnessing the best life style of citizens, best education, type of constituents, democracy, inequality and slavery. These are crucial topics in present world politics as†¦show more content†¦Becoming biased towards Greek, he supports slavery. Aristotle relates citizenship with holding of public office and administration of justice. According to him, those are citizens whose parents were also citizens. Th is depicts Aristotle being conservative philosopher of Greece where citizenship was given to only privileged class. He opposed the idea of citizenship to foreigners, slaves and women. According to him, the latter group of people don’t have moral and intellectual skills to hold public offices. One of the remarkable issues in Politics is about good citizen and good men. According to the work, good citizen and good men are different things. Good citizen knows how to rule and how to obey. A good man is one who is suitable to rule. But a good citizen knows how to rule abiding by the rule.Therefore, for Aristotle, citizenship was a matter of moral training as well. Another important aspect of Politics is its explanation about constitutions. There are 6 types of constitutions. Among them, three are just and three are unjust. A constitution becomes just when it benefits all in the city-states while the same becomes unjust if it benefits the ruler only. He considers the mix of democracy and oligarchy will allow the best constitution. In Books IV to VI, Aristotle moves towards the practical examination of political institutions. He found the differences between needs of city-states due to differences in wealth , population distribution andShow MoreRelatedAristotle s View Of Politics Essay1454 Words   |  6 Pagesorder to understand what Aristotle means when he says man is a Zoon politikon it is essential to understand the concept and reasoning behind his writings of The politics as a whole. This essay intends to discuss Aristotle s view of politics through the way in which he layers the fundamental concept of hierarchy of humans and natural societies to show that man by nature works for the common good. I will also discuss the conflicting views between the works of both Aristotle and Hobbes in orderRead MoreAristotle s Views On Politics1031 Words   |  5 Pageswhere Aristotle’s is coming from. Aristotle looked for solutions in a Universal manner. Basically, the principles and solutions for correctn ess comes from the idea that they have to be natural more than conventional. The idea of the good from Aristotle’s point of view comes from observation, he believed that the good is the final cause(there are three others that will be discussed), and that everyone can understand judgement and collective moral action. Aristotle also believed that people need toRead MorePlato And Aristotle s Views On Politics And Society1090 Words   |  5 PagesPlato 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. 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