Aristotle's Political Philosophy in its Historical Context

A New Translation and Commentary on Politics Books 5 and 6

Andrew Lintott

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351335676
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Histoire
• Subtopic: Histoire antique

This book offers new translations of Aristotle's Politics 5 and 6, accompanied by an introduction and commentary, targeted at historians and those who like to read political science in the context in which it was produced. Philosophical analysis remains essential and there is no intention to detract from the books as political theory, but the focus of this volume is the text as a crucial element in the discourse of fourth-century Greece, and the conflict throughout the Greek world between democracy, oligarchy, and the rise of the Macedonian monarchy.

1
Introduction

There are many books about the politics of the classical Greek city, but relatively few which look at them through the eyes of one of the most important political philosophers of all time – Aristotle. Much of his Politics is indeed theory, a consideration of principles and the construction of an ideal system which would satisfy them. We also find him, however, descending into the more problematic world of phenomena, where he offers advice about situations attested in past or contemporary history. Much of the evidence he uses here will have come from the collection of politeiai (‘constitutions’, or ‘political systems’), said to have been 158 in number, made by his school¹. Aristotle works in Politics 5–6 less as a theoretician and more as a political guru and empirical scientist, seeking to make sense of what had happened in the Greek world and to advise how it should be handled².

In Book 5 he considers changes to political systems, in particular those which arise from violent civil conflict – what the Greeks termed stasis³ – and the measures needed to control and prevent such changes. In Book 6 he conducts a more detailed study of what he considered the ultimate form of democracy, that of Athens, the city in which he did most of his teaching, where he makes suggestions about how this system might, in his view, be made more viable. Books 5 and 6 together deal with, first, one of the greatest issues in Greek politics and, second, with one of its most remarkable achievements. They have a particular resonance, moreover, in a period when the politics of Greek cities had been characterised by bitter conflict between oligarchy and democracy, when monarchy, whether in Persia or the Greek world, frequently flourished and indeed Greece itself became so dominated by the Macedonian monarchy that the democracy of Athens came under threat.

This edition, then, is targeted particularly at historians and those who like to read political science in the context in which it was produced. Philosophical analysis remains essential and there is no intention to detract from the books as possessions for ever in the world of political theory, but the text will also be viewed as part of history – an important element in the discourse of fourth-century Greece, just as Tragedy, Old Comedy, and the works of the sophists are in the previous century. It is also intended as a contribution to historiography. Although Politics 5–6 cannot be viewed as a history (see Chapter 2, Section 4), the books provide signposts to the mass of historical writing in the Aristotelian constitutions now largely lost to us. Before we consider them in detail, it is helpful to look at the project of the Politics as a whole.

Notes

1 Diog.Laert. 5.27. On the nature of the ‘constitutions’ see Cic.Fin. 5.11; Bollansée (2007); Ottone (2002), 67–80.

2 Jaeger (1948), 269–71; Rowe (1991). For Murray (1993), 203 this is reflected in two conceptions of political society, ‘the economic and necessary polis’ and ‘the natural and just polis’. Two approaches – that generally applicable in existing communities and the idealising, utopian project – may also be seen in Plato’s Laws (Schofield, 2010, 15–26); cf. 2.1265b 26–33.

3 Stasis can be used for any significant political division but frequently implies some level of violence (Lintott, 1982, 51, 75–6). See further the note on 5.1301b 4–8.

2
The Politics – themes, structure, and chronology

1 The Politics and the Nicomachean Ethics

The Politics is portrayed by Aristotle himself as a pendant to the Nicomachean Ethics, his most complete work on moral philosophy. In the tenth and final book of that work he summarises his conclusions about happiness (eudaimonia) as the end for man (1176a 35–1178b 33). He sees this as the product of virtuous activity – preferably contemplation but also other virtuous activities involving practical wisdom (phronesis), combined with sufficient ease of life to make this possible through health, nourishment, and other forms of support. The question then arises (1179a 33) how this form of behaviour is to be achieved, since it cannot be simply a matter of theoretical knowledge but must arise from practice. The capacity to act virtuously, Aristotle argues, is produced partly by a person’s natural character, partly by habit, and partly by education. The last two operate through nomoi (1179b 34) – that is, customs or laws. Only at Sparta have such nomoi been the business of a lawgiver (nomothetes); usually it has been a matter of fathers teaching their children (1180a 24). Education, however, although it must be suited to the individual person or situation like other arts and sciences, is better when it is based on a general understanding (1180b 7). Without this it may be successful in particular cases but ineffective elsewhere. Hence anyone who wishes to be scientific in moral education must become nomothetikos, an expert in law/custom (1180b 23), and must be one of those concerned with politics.

The sophists who teach politics, however, have no practical experience, while practising politicians have neither the ability to pass on their skill nor theoretical understanding. Mere research into apparently desirable laws is useless unless you have the ability to judge them correctly (1181a 15). Nevertheless, a collection of nomoi and politeiai (political systems) may assist those who have judgement, and those who do not have judgement may become more understanding through studying such material. Since his predecessors have failed to investigate the general theory of lawgiving and politics (1181b 12), Aristotle must do this himself in order that his human philosophy may be completed. Accordingly, he will consider first any good suggestions about particular matters made by his predecessors, then, on the basis of the collection of politeiai that has been made (1181b 17–18), he will discuss what things preserve or destroy cities and political systems and the reasons for the good or bad functioning of such systems. When all this has been examined, his audience may be best able to see which is the best political system (politeia), how each one is organised, and what laws and customs it employs.

Thus we have a rough sketch of the themes of the Politics, but, before we leave the Nicomachean Ethics, we should notice how it has foreshadowed the subject matter of the Politics. In Book 8 the discussion of friendship (philia) leads to talk of equality (1159b 2) and justice (1159b 25). What is just varies according to the community or society (koinonia) to which it applies, and where there is the closest community, there is also the strongest friendship and in fact the most extensive justice (1159b 29–31). All communities, however, are part of the political community (1160a 8), which comes together in the common interest, the object at which lawgivers aim. After itemising different sorts of subordinate community, such as tribes, demoi, and religious associations, Aristotle lists a spectrum of political systems (1160a 31) – three good and three deviations. The good are kingship, aristocracy, and that based on property (timemata), generally called politeia¹– in descending order of value. The deviations are tyranny and oligarchy, characterised by their pursuit of private interest, and democracy. Of these democracy is the least bad, because it is a small deviation from the form of politeia (1160b 19). ‘Polities’ (politeiai), accordingly, change most frequently, because the change to democracy is the smallest and easiest transition. These political relationships are mirrored by those in the household (1160b 22). That of father to sons is royal, though among the Persians it is tyrannical; that of master to slaves is tyrannical; that of husband to wife is aristocratic, because it is based on worth; that of brothers resembles a timocracy (i.e. a ‘polity’), for they are equal, even if different in ages; while democracy (1161a 2) is a like a masterless household in which everyone can do what they want. (Personal liberty remains a distinguishing characteristic of democracy in the Politics (5.1310a 30; 6.1317b 11).) This spectrum of constitutions will return with a more elaborate and somewhat different interpretation in Politics 3 (initially 1279a 22–b 26).

The discussion in Ethics 8 then moves on to a topic particularly relevant to the argument about political change in the Politics: the maintenance of friendship through justice according to merit – that is, according to the worth of the recipient of friendship. In the following discussion, Aristotle states that you should treat equal friends according to equality but unequals according to the measure of their superiority (1162a 34–1162b 4). The friendship and justice in personal relations has been shown earlier to have parallels in the various political systems, whether the friendship is that of father to son (royal), husband to wife (aristocratic), or that of brothers (timocratic) (1161a 21–5). The neglect of this principle of equality in proportion to merit will be for him the source of the corruption and downfall of all political systems in Politics 5 (1301a 25–39).

2 The structure of the Politics

To return to the Politics, the first book, picking up what has been said in Ethics 8, establishes the city (polis) as the supreme form of koinonia, whose object is the good life, and considers the operations of the households which are its natural components. The second provides a review of earlier political theory and the creation of constitutions in practice. It begins with a long discussion of Plato’s Republic and Laws, moves on to the constitutions proposed by Phaleas of Chalcedon and Hippodamos of Miletos, and then considers the work of lawgivers in practice – the Spartan, Cretan, and Carthaginian constitutions, and the work of Solon at Athens. It ends with brief notes about other lawgivers.

Books 3 to 6 are the core of the Politics – an examination of existing and previous political systems, their merits and demerits both according to absolute standards and as a response to their specific historical circumstances. In Book 3 discussion of the nature of citizenship leads in turn to the list of the three correct and three deviant constitutions, whose nature and associated ideologies are then examined. As introduced above, the correct constitutions are kingship, aristocracy, and the so-called politeia¹: these are respectively rule by one, rule by the few, and rule by the many, which are just in that they pursue the common interest; and the deviant systems are tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy, which pursue respectively the interest of the tyrant, the interest of the wealthy, and the interest of the poor (1279a 22–1279b 10). This is elaborated in Book 4, where the subdivisions and the distinguishing institutions of oligarchy and democracy are studied, producing two detailed spectra in which the most democratic oligarchy is effectively the same as the most oligarchic democracy (cf. 1291b 30–4 with 1292a 39–41). The ‘polity’ (politeia) is also discussed, here treated as a mixture of oligarchy and democracy, and is placed where their spectra overlap². Hansen³ argues that this is the practical classification of systems in existence: it is clear in Book 5 that Aristotle has confined the rule of one or a few virtuous men – kingship and aristocracy – largely to the realm of theory. Book 5 then discusses changes to political systems, the forms that their corruption and decline take, especially when there is stasis (civil strife), and the methods by which they may be preserved. This is discussed both generally and in relation to specific constitutions, good and bad: there is an extended discussion of the corruption and preservation of tyranny (1311a 8–1315b 39). Book 6, the last of this section, is mainly devoted to a more elaborate treatment of the forms, institutions, and ideology of democracy, including how it should be best preserved – a discussion necessitated, in Aristotle’s view, by the manifold types of democracy. Appended to this is a section on the preservation of oligarchies (1320b 18–1321b 3). The book ends with a review of the types of public official needed in any community (1321b 4–1323a 10).

Contrasting with this is the final sketch of the ideal constitution in Books 7–8, where Aristotle goes back to first principles – the nature of happiness (eudaimonia) – in order to create his...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Abbreviations and texts
• 1 Introduction
• 2 The Politics – themes, structure, and chronology
• 3 Political change and civil strife in Politics Book 5
• 4 Aristotle’s theory of political change
• 5 Aristotle and democracy
• 6 Aristotle’s preference – the politeia
• 7 The Politics, Macedon, and Macedonian sympathisers
• 8 The Politics and ethical theory
• Politics Book 5, sections 1–12
• Commentary on Politics Book 5
• Politics Book 6, sections 1–8
• Commentary on Politics Book 6
• Bibliography
• Index of ancient texts
• Index of proper names
• Index of subjects