Aristotle, The Politics, Trans. T.A. Sinclair (London: Penguin, ). 1. How should we decide who is to hold office and exercise power? In modern democratic societies the answer to this question is simple: every adult has the freedom to run for office and exercise power. But for Aristotle this is far from being the right method Aristotle essay questions for amy tans mother tongue essay. Main idea of grammar as of the argument for or explain, according to fairchild questions essay aristotle. A motivation of individual research, the research paper ii completing an introduction of a form that allows the brain classrooms How does Aristotle present catharsis as an element in terms of plot? 4. Define six elements requisite for a successful tragedy. 5. Why is plot more important than character or speech in a tragedy? blogger.comted Reading Time: 1 min
Writing Solution: Aristotle essay questions best academic challenges!
Aristotle, The Politicsaristotle essay questions, Trans. Sinclair London: Penguin, How should we decide who is to hold office and exercise power? In modern democratic societies the answer to this question is simple: every adult has the freedom to run for office and exercise power. But for Aristotle this is far from being the right method. His fear is that settling the question in this way, on the basis that all men aristotle essay questions equal, is as inadequate as an oligarch settling it by insisting that the wealthy should have power, because both are likely to lead to government in pursuit of partial interests.
Good government is that which pursues the interests of all. Aristotle essay questions there is one other factor that also determines the best government. Power must be in the hands of those who are best equipped for it. The ultimate aim of the state is to promote the good life: to provide the conditions in which men can live virtuous and, therefore, aristotle essay questions, happy and fulfilled lives. So, he would argue, it would make obvious sense to ensure that power lies in the hands of those who are best qualified to create and maintain such a society.
It should go to those who can make the biggest contribution towards this objective. Such a distribution would be just, because it would ensure that the interests of all were pursued and not just the partial interests of the ruling elite. But these qualities are more difficult to pin down. We would need a far more sophisticated means of deciding who to give power to that our modern method of universal suffrage. In modern democracies all adults over a particular age are given the vote and can hold office, aristotle essay questions.
But Aristotle believes we must have selection criteria that are far more sophisticated than this. This would allow anybody, whether they have merit or not, to assume power as long as they could persuade voters to support their application.
So how do we pin down criteria, which would help us select on the basis of merit? There are obvious things that Aristotle appears to want to include at times. Good birth and ownership appear to feature in his list as do virtues, like justice and courage. He obviously wants leaders to have a high level of culture, to be well educated and to lead a life of leisure that allows them the time for government and for philosophical speculation, aristotle essay questions.
Still, he does believe that the numerical superiority of the other sections of the population should also be taken into account. In Nicomachean Ethics he explains aristotle essay questions the ultimate end of man is happiness, to which all his actions are aimed directly or indirectly. When he moderates his actions and feelings in accordance with reason he leads a virtuous life.
So, a happy and fulfilled life is also a virtuous life. The aim of Politicsthen, aristotle essay questions, by extension, is to determine what kind of political association is the most effective in enabling the individual to lead a happy and virtuous life.
Aristotle describes man as naturally sociable and, therefore, political. So the state is not only a means of meeting his physical needs, but also his need to be sociable, to discuss his concerns for justice, exercise virtue and lead in the fullest sense a virtuous and happy life. The interests of the state and the individual are, therefore, identical in pursuing the happiness of the individual.
In an ideal state the good citizen is also a good man, because both are concerned with the issue of justice, aristotle essay questions, which Aristotle describes in Nicomachean Ethics as the most complete expression of all virtue. Essentially a citizen has the responsibility aristotle essay questions rule aristotle essay questions state and enter into the continuous debate and deliberation on the key issue of justice.
But still, as Aristotle points out, there is a difference between aristotle essay questions good citizen and the good man. The virtue of a good citizen is that which leads to the preservation and stability of the state. Nevertheless, aristotle essay questions, in the best regimes the virtue of a good citizen matches that of a good man in that he possesses the moral character, the merit, not only to live a virtuous life himself, but to promote the common good and happiness of all.
This is endorsed in another way by Nicomachean Ethics in that virtue, for the individual, aristotle essay questions, is the mean between two extremes and so it is with constitutions. There are three social groups in a state: the very wealthy, the very poor and those in the middle.
Since the mean is the best, the most virtuous and happiest, in an ideal state there should be a large number of citizens with moderate and adequate property, less than the very rich and more than the very poor. If most citizens are equal and similar this is likely to diminish conflict between the rich and the poor, and prevent the constitution becoming an extreme one. Those occupying the middle rarely engage in factional conflict and, therefore, states with a large middle element are more stable.
But perhaps the most obvious connection between the two books is that the virtuous man of Nicomachean Ethics is also the most rational and best suited to government, aristotle essay questions. However, here a contradiction appears, aristotle essay questions. The most virtuous of men spend their time in a leisured and contemplative lifestyle in quiet philosophical speculation. Such an individual needs solitude, not the actively social life that politics demands.
So, Aristotle appears to be advocating two quite different lifestyles for the citizen: the solitary and the social. Citizens are expected to lead a social life engaged in the political activities involved in running the state, yet this is quite different from the solitary, contemplative life. It seems that while the contemplative life is the end for all citizens, political life is merely the means of maintaining the conditions necessary for it. While Aristotle argues that man is essentially a political animal, he is at the same time arguing that the highest activity for man, in which he finds ultimate happiness and fulfillment, should be found away from politics in the contemplative life spent in solitude and quiet philosophical speculation.
How does Aristotle justify the role of slavery in a Greek state? At the core of his justification of slavery lie the teleological assumptions that run throughout Politics. He argues that nature is made up of those things whose function is to rule and those that are ruled. So some people are by nature slaves, while others are masters.
A slave is one who does not belong to himself by nature. He is not an end in himself, but a mere tool. It is naturally beneficial that the soul should rule the body as it is beneficial and just that a slave should be ruled by his master.
Similarly, it is better for animals that they should be trained than allowed to run wild. The master is by nature rational; he possesses commanding powers. The slave, by contrast, possesses none of these; he is better suited to menial duties. In contrast, he argues that the forced enslavement of captives during aristotle essay questions is unjust, because superiority of force is not necessarily possessed by those who have moral superiority, which alone justifies slavery.
In other words, aristotle essay questions, might aristotle essay questions not necessarily right. Therefore, while it is unjust as a result of war and conquest to enslave those who are not slaves by nature, it is just to enslave those who are naturally slaves as long as the rule of the master over the slave is beneficial to both parties, aristotle essay questions.
Without reason slaves cannot be free, because freedom, aristotle essay questions, like any other activity, depends on the correct use of reason.
It depends on acting in accordance with right reason, which leads to virtue. True freedom consists of living a virtuous life. So without reason slaves cannot be free or virtuous. Of course, if such a group actually exists, his argument might seem compelling.
But he gives us no reason why we should not just reject his empirical assumption about their existence altogether and with it his whole argument. How does Aristotle deal with the conflicting demands of change and conservatism? For any stable state innovations and changes are likely to be viewed with caution for fear of bringing not just instability, but arbitrary and tyrannical government.
Once achieved there should be no reason for change. Although this argument runs throughout the Politicshe does accept that this ideal state aristotle essay questions often differ from the sort of state that is best suited to a particular society at a particular time and much of the Politics is aristotle essay questions to practical suggestions about how states could improve themselves.
Economic and social change can alter the balance of the population with some social classes becoming more influential as they grow wealthier. But there is no theory of history in Aristotle as there is in Marxist theory with political, reflecting economic, power and the state going through distinct stages as one class overthrows another and becomes the new ruling class, aristotle essay questions.
The function of the state is to ensure happiness and the good life, so it must be governed by those who are equipped for citizenship, who can provide the conditions in which men can live virtuous and, therefore, happy and fulfilled lives. For them reason is used in pursuit of a virtuous and happy life, which is the ultimate end, rather than used as a means to achieve less noble ends as it is with craftsmen, traders, farmers and others who have to supply the material needs of society.
Aristotle believes that the pursuit of such a limited end is not fitting for a free man. To work for the sake of any good that is less than the virtuous life is demeaning for man, reducing him to the status aristotle essay questions a slave. So, throughout Politics there is this tension between those who are citizens and members of the state and those who are not members, but serve those who are.
Aristotle never successfully deals with this, but it does mean he believes that in the ideal state power should rest with the same type of citizen, regardless of the economic and social changes that are going on around them, aristotle essay questions, which probably explains the underlying conservatism of his ideas. Nevertheless, despite his apparent resistance aristotle essay questions change, he does pose problems we all have to consider and resolve for ourselves: whether someone whose time is spent in repetitive, manual labor has sufficient political and social wisdom to qualify for an effective role in making decisions that affect the rest of society.
This means placing a value on wisdom, experience, virtue and merit in much the same way that Aristotle does, even though our conclusion may be quite different. In the Republic, Plato is describing a utopia, the ideal state. Although Aristotle, too, is concerned to describe what would make the ideal state, his approach is far more empirical, inductive and down to earth.
He is particularly distrustful of sweeping generalizations. Second, he argues, all constitutions more often change into their opposites than into those like them.
Like all empirical, practical thinkers, he looks for the exception and the evidence against which to test the theory. Although much of Politics is spent analyzing theoretical concerns about what makes the best state, he spends a surprising amount of space discussing practical considerations.
In book 4 he argues that political theorists must not only be concerned with theory, but what can be done to create regimes that are best in the circumstances.
Rather than always thinking of the very best constitution, aristotle essay questions, he insists we must think about introducing a system which the people involved are likely to accept and could be easily introduced, starting from the system they actually have, aristotle essay questions.
However, to do this we must approach it inductively and see how many different types of government there are. He insists we must consider the practicalities of the ideal state.
So he considers practical issues like how large should the population be and the importance of having a territory that, aristotle essay questions, while it has ports that are open to trade and commerce, this should not leave the state vulnerable. When he examines population he warns that it should neither be too large, nor too small: too small and the state might find it difficult to be self-sufficient and too large it might be difficult to govern.
He concludes the quality of citizens is more important than quantity. com is the premier free source for literary analysis on the web. We provide an educational supplement for better understanding of classic and contemporary literature. com is continually in the process of adding more books to the website each week.
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Aristotle \u0026 Virtue Theory: Crash Course Philosophy #38
, time: 9:22Nicomachean Ethics: Suggested Essay Topics | SparkNotes
Aristotle, The Politics, Trans. T.A. Sinclair (London: Penguin, ). 1. How should we decide who is to hold office and exercise power? In modern democratic societies the answer to this question is simple: every adult has the freedom to run for office and exercise power. But for Aristotle this is far from being the right method Aristotle essay questions for amy tans mother tongue essay. Main idea of grammar as of the argument for or explain, according to fairchild questions essay aristotle. A motivation of individual research, the research paper ii completing an introduction of a form that allows the brain classrooms How does Aristotle present catharsis as an element in terms of plot? 4. Define six elements requisite for a successful tragedy. 5. Why is plot more important than character or speech in a tragedy? blogger.comted Reading Time: 1 min
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