The Political Thought of Plato and Aristotle

The Political Thought of Plato and Aristotle

Author: E. Barker

Publisher: Courier Corporation

Published: 2012-03-07

Total Pages: 594

ISBN-13: 0486121399

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Cogent exposition of Greek political thought offers a comprehensive exploration of the works of Plato and Aristotle and examines state power, nature of political organization, citizenship, justice, and related concepts.


Plato, Aristotle, and the Purpose of Politics

Plato, Aristotle, and the Purpose of Politics

Author: Kevin M. Cherry

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2012-04-30

Total Pages: 277

ISBN-13: 1107379873

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In this book, Kevin M. Cherry compares the views of Plato and Aristotle about the practice, study and, above all, the purpose of politics. The first scholar to place Aristotle's Politics in sustained dialogue with Plato's Statesman, Cherry argues that Aristotle rejects the view of politics advanced by Plato's Eleatic Stranger, contrasting them on topics such as the proper categorization of regimes, the usefulness and limitations of the rule of law, and the proper understanding of phronēsis. The various differences between their respective political philosophies, however, reflect a more fundamental difference in how they view the relationship of human beings to the natural world around them. Reading the Politics in light of the Statesman sheds new light on Aristotle's political theory and provides a better understanding of Aristotle's criticism of Socrates. Most importantly, it highlights an enduring and important question: should politics have as its primary purpose the preservation of life, or should it pursue the higher good of living well?


Plato and the Mythic Tradition in Political Thought

Plato and the Mythic Tradition in Political Thought

Author: Tae-Yeoun Keum

Publisher: Belknap Press

Published: 2020-12-08

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 0674984641

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Winner of the Gustave O. Arlt Award in the Humanities Winner of the Istvan Hont Book Prize An ambitious reinterpretation and defense of Plato’s basic enterprise and influence, arguing that the power of his myths was central to the founding of philosophical rationalism. Plato’s use of myths—the Myth of Metals, the Myth of Er—sits uneasily with his canonical reputation as the inventor of rational philosophy. Since the Enlightenment, interpreters like Hegel have sought to resolve this tension by treating Plato’s myths as mere regrettable embellishments, irrelevant to his main enterprise. Others, such as Karl Popper, have railed against the deceptive power of myth, concluding that a tradition built on Platonic foundations can be neither rational nor desirable. Tae-Yeoun Keum challenges the premise underlying both of these positions. She argues that myth is neither irrelevant nor inimical to the ideal of rational progress. She tracks the influence of Plato’s dialogues through the early modern period and on to the twentieth century, showing how pivotal figures in the history of political thought—More, Bacon, Leibniz, the German Idealists, Cassirer, and others—have been inspired by Plato’s mythmaking. She finds that Plato’s followers perennially raised the possibility that there is a vital role for myth in rational political thinking.


Conflict in Aristotle's Political Philosophy

Conflict in Aristotle's Political Philosophy

Author: Steven Skultety

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2019-10-03

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 1438476590

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Do only modern thinkers like Machiavelli and Hobbes accept that conflict plays a significant role in the origin and maintenance of political community? In this book, Steven Skultety argues that Aristotle not only took conflict to be an inevitable aspect of political life, but further recognized ways in which conflict promotes the common good. While many scholars treat Aristotelian conflict as an absence of substantive communal ideals, Skultety argues that Aristotle articulated a view of politics that theorizes profoundly different kinds of conflict. Aristotle comprehended the subtle factors that can lead otherwise peaceful citizens to contemplate outright civil war, grasped the unique conditions that create hopelessly implacable partisans, and systematized tactics rulers could use to control regrettable, but still manageable, levels of civic distrust. Moreover, Aristotle conceived of debate, enduring disagreement, social rivalries, and competitions for leadership as an indispensable part of how human beings live well together in successful political life. By exploring the ways in which citizens can be at odds with one another, Conflict in Aristotle's Political Philosophy presents a dimension of ancient Greek thought that is startlingly relevant to contemporary concerns about social divisions, constitutional crises, and the range of acceptable conflict in healthy democracies.


The Politics

The Politics

Author: Aristotle

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 1981-09-17

Total Pages: 455

ISBN-13: 0141913266

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Twenty-three centuries after its compilation, 'The Politics' still has much to contribute to this central question of political science. Aristotle's thorough and carefully argued analysis is based on a study of over 150 city constitutions, covering a huge range of political issues in order to establish which types of constitution are best - both ideally and in particular circumstances - and how they may be maintained. Aristotle's opinions form an essential background to the thinking of philosophers such as Thomas Aquinas, Machiavelli and Jean Bodin and both his premises and arguments raise questions that are as relevant to modern society as they were to the ancient world.


Rewriting Contemporary Political Philosophy with Plato and Aristotle

Rewriting Contemporary Political Philosophy with Plato and Aristotle

Author: Paul Schollmeier

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2019-08-08

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 1350066176

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Many contemporary philosophers develop political theories in an attempt to justify the societies that we currently live in. But the distribution of wealth in our societies today is becoming ever more polarized. Can these philosophers offer theories that are truly just? Paul Schollmeier takes us back to ancient political philosophy in order to present an original theory of what a society in our era ought to be, and to highlight the flaws in the liberal and libertarian political theories set forth by Robert Nozick and John Rawls. Adapting the ancient principle of happiness found in Plato and Aristotle, he introduces the concept of a eudaimonic polity, which promotes engagement in political activity primarily for its own sake and not for private profit or pleasure. Schollmeier argues that we can best exercise our rational and political nature when we participate together with others in political activity without an ulterior motive. Lucid in argumentation and original in approach, this book presents a strong case for a eudaimonic polity that firmly favors public interest over private interest.


Form of Politics

Form of Politics

Author: John von Heyking

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

Published: 2016-06-01

Total Pages: 251

ISBN-13: 0773599290

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For statesmen, friendship is the lingua franca of politics. Considering the connections between personal and political friendship, John von Heyking’s The Form of Politics interprets the texts of Plato and Aristotle and emphasizes the role that friendship has in enduring philosophical and contemporary political contexts. Beginning with a discussion on virtue-friendship, described by Aristotle and Plato as an agreement on what qualifies as the pursuit of good, The Form of Politics demonstrates that virtue and political friendship form a paradoxical relationship in which political friendships need to be nourished by virtue-friendships that transcend the moral and intellectual horizons of the political society. Von Heyking then examines Aristotle’s ethical and political writings – which are set within the boundaries of political life – and Plato’s dialogues on friendship in Lysis and the Laws, which characterize political friendship as festivity. Ultimately, arguing that friendship is the high point of a virtuous political life, von Heyking presents a fresh interpretation of Aristotle and Plato’s political thought, and a new take on the most essential goals in politics. Inviting reassessment of the relationship between friendship and politics by returning to the origins of Western philosophy, The Form of Politics is a lucid work on the foundations of political cooperation.


The Household as the Foundation of Aristotle's Polis

The Household as the Foundation of Aristotle's Polis

Author: D. Brendan Nagle

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2006-03-13

Total Pages: 319

ISBN-13: 0521849349

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Among ancient writers Aristotle offers the most profound analysis of the ancient Greek household and its relationship to the state. The household was not the family in the modern sense of the term, but a much more powerful entity with significant economic, political, social, and educational resources. The success of the polis in all its forms lay in the reliability of households to provide it with the kinds of citizens it needed to ensure its functioning. In turn, the state offered the members of its households a unique opportunity for humans to flourish. This 2006 book explains how Aristotle thought household and state interacted within the polis.