Aristotle’s Politics



ARISTOTLE’S ETHICS

Aristotle: 384 – 322 BCE

Aristotle was born in Stagira, Macedonia, in what is now part of northern Greece. The city was a seaport on the coast of Macedon. (Since most Greeks were known only by one name, they were often identified by the city of their birth. Hence Aristotle was known in his lifetime as Aristotle of Stargira.) The Macedonians, during Aristotle’s life, dominated the rest of Greece and much of Europe, under King Philip and then Alexander the Great, of whom Aristotle was a teacher. Aristotle was the son of a doctor, Nichomachus, who was closely allied to the court in Macedonia. As such, throughout his life, Aristotle was seen as close to the rulers of Macedonia, considered by the citizens of the other Greek city-states as foreign conquerers.

Aristotle moved to Athens in 367 BCE, attending Plato’s Academy until Plato’s death in 347 BCE. During this twenty year period, Plato wrote many of his most important and mature works, including the Timaeus, Sophist, Statesman, and Laws. These works had an enormous influence on Aristotle’s own work, even if, in the end, he disputes a number of Plato’s claims.

Aristotle left the Academy and Athens in 347 BCE. First, he moved to Atarneus in Mysia. Here, Aristotle married Pythias, a niece of Hermeias, the ruler of Atarneus. They had a daughter, also called Pythias. After the death of his wife, Aristotle had a son Nicomachus with Herpyllis. Later, Aristotle left for the island of Lesbos, and then back to Macedon. Back home, Aristotle again was close to the ruling family of Macedon, tutoring the young Alexander the Great. In 334 BCE, Aristotle returned to Athens, founding his own school, the Lyceum.

It is important to note that Aristotle’s works that survive were texts of lectures from his days at the Lyceum. While many parts of his texts were polished enough to suggest that he would publish them, other parts of Aristotle’s surviving work includes incomplete sentences and paraphrased notations. Aristotle's lectures were preserved by a student, Theophrastus, who put the books in a vault. For close to 300 years, Aristotle’s work was lost to the world, until discovered by a Roman scholar in 100 BCE. The order in which Aristotle’s works appear in the Greek manuscripts goes back to early editors and commentators during the era of the late Roman empire. As such, the titles to Aristotle’s work were provided by these editors. For example, it is usually assumed that Aristotle “invented” metaphysics due to the book of this name. However, the term metaphysics was placed on a certain text of Aristotle’s, since it was agreed that this text would follow the Physics in a published edition of Aristotle’s work. That is, the text would be meta, after or above, the text of the Physics, which preceded it.

In 323 BCE, Alexander the Great passed away and so with him the influence of Macedon on the other Greek city states. The Macedonian-led government of Athens fell and the new rulers brought charges of impiety against Aristotle. Aristotle left Athens amidst a fervor of anti-Macedonian feeling for the island of Euboea, where he died in 322 BCE of a stomach illness. Before leaving Athens, fearing for his life, Aristotle is reputed to have said “The Athenians might not have another opportunity of sinning against philosophy as they have already done in the person of Socrates.”

For Aristotle, as he puts it in his Metaphysics and NE, we must begin with what is “better known to us” (1029b3). In essence, what we know best is the empirical world around us. Aristotle’s method is to use induction from particular observations, generalizing from a set of phenomena to reach a principle. But this principle must continually be tested against further empirical data and other principles. In philosophical inquiry, Aristotle argues that we must begin “empirically” by critically studying the common beliefs of the community and the thoughts of prior philosophers. This should not be taken to suggest that Aristotle considered knowledge learned from the senses as the only form of knowledge. Aristotle argued for universals and ultimate causes, such as justice and God, which may not necessarily be found in the sensory world. Yet, for Aristotle, “what is better known to us” must always be the starting point for a philosophical or scientific investigation.

Another feature of Aristotle’s method is to begin by way of analysis, which is defined as breaking up what is being investigated into its component parts. As he puts it in Book I of The Politics, “What I am saying will be clear if we examine the matter according to the method of investigation that has guided us elsewhere … A composite has to be analyzed until we reach things that are incomposite, since these are the smallest parts of the whole, so if we also examine the parts that make up a city-state, we shall see better both how these differ from each other, and whether or not it is possible to gain some expertise in connection with each of the things we have mentioned” (1252a15-20). We will see this in our reading of the NE.

Key Terms for Reading the Ethics

In order to better understand Aristotle’s Ethics, we must first get on the same page, so to speak, with regard to the terminology that Aristotle is using. We will also need to review terms that would have been familiar to Aristotle’s Greek readers, but are less familiar to 21st century readers. However, no definition is ever set in stone and good scholars argue over the precise meaning of Aristotle’s terminology, from what he means by knowledge (epitemē) to his conception of virtue. In other words, as critical readers, you should use these definitions and comments as a help in reading the text; only a thorough reading of the assigned text will help you in gaining a foothold with Aristotelian terminology. (One note on terminology: I use the term “man” and “men” quite a bit below in reference to citizenship and the community. This sexist terminology is purposeful since Aristotle, as we shall see, explicitly excludes women from acting within the political realm.)

Action (praxis): We get the English word “practice” from the Greek “praxis,” which is the result of deliberate choice. Aristotle differentiates in Book I of the Politics between praxis and production. Praxis is an end in itself, while production has an end, is for the sake of, what is produced, for example when one makes a chair. For Aristotle, only free people can act in this specific sense, since the end of any action is acting well, which is the action itself. Action, like happiness, is an end in itself. It is not for the sake of anything but itself; it is the mark of a free man that he can act since he makes a decision to act, and action doesn’t merely happen to him.

Common Beliefs (endoxa): Aristotle begins most of his treatises, and thus his form of dialectic, by treating common beliefs first.

City-State (polis): The dominant political unit in Ancient Greece. The city-states were generally small with one common culture among their inhabitants, except for that of foreign-born slaves. City-states included Athens, Sparta, and Thebes. For Aristotle, the non-deviant city-state would be one in which free and equal citizens are bound together in a community whose end is the most mutually beneficial life possible.

Community: Men, according to Aristotle, are by nature political animals. The first communities, according to Aristotle, were families spaced out across the landscape. Aristotle is almost unique among political philosophers in his claim that the political community is “natural,” that is, not something artificially produced (see the distinction above between action and production). The family is a natural result of man’s wish to partake in the divine by way of a quasi-immortality, by producing offspring that will continue the blood-line of a family. As Aristotle traces it in Politics Book I, the family naturally gathers together in mutual need (exchange of goods, etc.) into villages, the second type of community. This community is modelled on the family, according to Aristotle, with a king presiding over the village as a father does over a family and its slaves. Finally, a number of villages joined together for mutual benefit is the most mature type of community, the city-state., which “comes to be for the sake of living, but it remains in existence for the sake of living well” (1252b).

DECISION (prohairesis): A decision, according to Aristotle, is the result of a wish for something that is good for us, and comes about after delibertation using one’s practical wisdom (phronesis).

Ethics and Politics: Put simply at this point, ethics, for Aristotle, is the ability to review blameworthy and praiseworthy actions of human beings. Ethics seeks to discover a careful balance between the good of the individual and the good of the community. The Nichomachean Ethics proceeds from the standpoint of the individual while the Politics proceeds from the standpoint of the community. Each domain, the political and the ethical, is concerned with what Aristotle takes to be the ultimate good, namely happiness, which is an end for its own sake.

The word “ethics” is derived from the Greek adjective ēthikos, which itself is derived from the Greek word ēthos, which means character. For Aristotle, in order to form a good character or ēthos, one must have formed good habits, or ethoi (note: this a different Greek word—no long “e”), formed through a good education.

END (telos): As Aristotle explains in book I of the NE, the nature of anything is its end. In his Metaphysics, A. argues that there are four causes of any event or object; we will illustrate this with the example of the statue:

1. The material cause. Bronze or marble would be the material cause of the statue; it is its material make-up.

2. The formal cause. This would in most cases be the form of the event or thing; it is the definition of what the thing is. For example the statue of liberty is in the form of a woman holding a torch and representing a beacon of freedom.

3. The efficient cause. This is the direct source, which brought the statue into being. It would be better to think of the efficient cause as the “cause of change.” The sculptor would be the efficient cause of the statue.

4. Final cause. Most important for the discussion in the Politics is the final cause, the telos or event of the event or object. For example, the final cause of a statue is to represent something, such as Lady Liberty. An acorn’s final cause would be a tree; it is the goal for which it exists.

Taking up any event or object, one cause is usually more relevant to the discussion. For the city-state, the most important cause is the final cause. But as we will also see, the formal cause, the particular form (aristocracy, democracy etc.) will also be important to Aristotle. For now, it is important to keep in mind that the final cause of any community, the development it will ultimately lead to, is found in the city-state. And the final cause of the city-state, that for which it is set up, is the good, what Aristotle will define as “living well,” and what we might loosely think of as happiness.

FUNCTION (ergon): The Greek word ergon also means “work,” and the use of ergon in the NE has been argued over. Essentially, Aristotle argues that each thing or animate being (that is, anything with a soul) works in a particular way or has a certain function. If it performs its function well, then it is said to have an aretē, an excellence about it. To perform one’s function (ergon) excellently (with aretē), for Aristotle, is to be a fully ethical human being, and to be happy.

GOOD (agathos): For Aristotle, the ultimate end, that which is “good” for each human being, is happiness. A good is the result of an action, what we seek in doing something. Everything we do is for the sake of some good. Some things are “good in themselves,” for example, happiness. We do not seek happiness in order to get wealth. Rather wealth, which is a good, is sought for a larger good, a good in itself, namely happiness.

HAPPINESS (eudaimonia): This is the ultimate goal of all human praxis and is the ultimate goal of any community. Happiness is found in reflecting upon God, practicing philosophy, or enjoying the company of one’s friends. All of these activities are only available, according to Aristotle, in a political community that affords its free citizens the leisure time to do so. But we should not confuse eudaimonia with our contemporary notion of happiness, which is simply a synonym for pleasure. Certainly, there is pleasure involved in the happiness that Aristotle is talking about, but it is also the ultimate fulfillment of the life of a citizen freely acting within the community. It will be an important part of your task in reading Book I of the Ethics to seek out what Aristotle means by this. As he notes, all men have a different notion of happiness based on their different lives.

JUSTICE (dikē): Justice is the “common benefit.” For Aristotle, a city-state cannot exist without justice, which for Aristotle is the virtue, the defining property, of a city-state.

MEAN (mesotēs): Aristotle is famous for what is called the “Aristotelian mean.” As outlined in Book IV of the NE, and explained further in book VI, if we perform our function well as human beings, we seek the mean or the intermediate between two extremes in order to practice virtue. For example, in order to practice courage, we must react to our fears in a moderate fashion, aiming for a mean or intermediate state between two extremes: (1) showing no restraint in the face of our fears, which would be cowardice, but (2) also not ignoring our fear, which, in the face of overwhelming odds, for example on the battlefield, which would be stupidity. It is brave to fight when one has a possibility of succeeding, even if the odds are slim; it is not brave, according to Aristotle, to fight when there are no odds of winning. This is not bravery and does not find the mean between the two extremes.

NOBLE (kalon): For Aristotle, what is noble is the result of virtue, and free citizens prefer what is noble to all else. The noble is an end in itself, in contrast to what is useful, something used in order to get something else (i.e. using a slave to plow the fields).

PLEASURE (hēdonē): We get our word “hedonism,” for the belief that pleasure is the ultimate good, from the Greek word hēdonē. Aristotle was not, however, a hedonist. He believed that we must not mistake pleasure for happiness, as many of his contemporary Greeks did and many still do today. Rather pleasure is a by-product of things that are good, including being a virtuous human being. Pleasure is important in Aristotle: if we are educated rightly, and form a good character, we will derive pleasure from doing what is good for others, from performing our virtues. A person that is not rightly educated will instead find pleasure in things that are destructive to our communities.

PRUDENCE PRACTICAL WISDOM (phronēsis): In the Nichomachean Ethics distinguishes between phronesis, translated as “practical wisdom,” and theoria, pure contemplation. Practical wisdom is used by the statesman, while theoria is the province of the philosopher. For Aristotle, it is important that the virtuous person, under whatever constitution the state operates, is a virtuous person performing virtue for its own sake. This virtue requires a special kind of “knowledge,” different from the theorizing of the philosopher. A person with practical wisdom deliberates upon a course of action to take using his or her prudence. Pracitcal wisdom therefore entails grasping the nature of what is going on in the city-state to make a definitive decision here and now. For Aristotle, practical wisom is built up by experience, because it is not just a set of rules that can be applied mechanically. In other words, one can’t just learn practical wisdom by reading a book.

SLAVES and WOMEN: Aristotle’s ethical and political theory is marked by an oppressive view of slaves and women. For Aristotle, slaves are a natural part of the family, ruled over by a master. It is natural, he believes, for Greeks to rule over non-Greeks; non-Greeks captured during war were taken home as slaves. A slave lacks reason, according to Aristotle, which it must get from the orders of its master. For Aristotle, the slave is better off under the rule of his master since he would otherwise not be able to partake in the use of reason (albeit indirectly by following the orders of his master), thus reducing him totally to animality. In addition, men are natural rulers and women are always to be ruled. A woman has some ability to reason, but this ability “lacks any authority.” It’s never made clear what Aristotle means by this, except the implication that a woman will do something differently than what her reason tells her to do. She might figure out the best course of action, but do something completely different. In the hierarchy that Aristotle sets up, the lowest rung is taken up by animals, hen slaves, women, male boys, and men, in ascending order. Male boys have an ability to deliberate and will someday grow into full citizens.

SOUL (psuchē): For Aristotle, the soul is nothing other than the activity of a living body. A way to understand this would be that if there were no soul, then animals and human beings would not have a soul. Yes, animals have a soul, according to Aristotle, though one that is limited to perception and desire. For Aristotle, the human soul has appetites or desires, the ability to sense and perceive, and also the ability to reason, which is what differentiates our souls from those of animals. The soul is not separate from the body, but is rather the cause of its activity from within itself. If we are to be ethical, according to Aristotle, then one part of the soul (the non-rational part, the one that is based in perception and desires things) must be ruled over by the other part of the soul, the one based in reason. The rational part of the soul, for a virtuous person who has formed good habits, will be the only one who is able to act ethically.

VIRTUE (aretē): This is the center of Aristotle’s political and ethical theory. In Aristotle’s use of the term, virtue means more than simply having “ethical virtue” as we use the term. A man’s virtue is that which makes him a good man: his intelligence, courage, practical wisdom, etc.

Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics Outline

Book I

Quick synopsis: Aristotle begins the NE by noting, on the one hand, that there seem to be many goods that people make decisions in order to reach or receive, and that for each science has its own end (for example, health as the end of medicine) or the for-the-sake-of-which of the enterprise (§1). On the other hand, while each science has its own good, there must be some science or inquiry which is the genus (the highest class) under which all the other sciences are placed; this is the most important science, which for Aristotle at this point is political science (§ 2). This is an extremely important point given what Aristotle writes later in Book 10 about the importance of the theoretical life. For the moment, we will leave the question open the question of which is more important in Aristotle’s schema: the political life of action or the solitary life of philosophical contemplation (hint: possible paper topic). Aristotle, for the moment, places great emphasis on the early point. The striking thing about the early sections of Book I is the way in which Aristotle argues not only that ethics is a part of politics, but also that ethics will not have the exactness of rules and procedures that we would see, for example, in mathematics (§1). This is because, as Aristotle will again note in Book VI, ethics is not something that can be taught like facts and figures, but is a way of living that comes through the habit and experience; an intelligent person (as Aristotle means it, an intelligent person must be ethical) is unlikely to be young for this reason.

In §4 and §5, Aristotle begins to discuss the notion of happiness. Do not be thrown off by the various definitions that he will throw at you in the text. Aristotle will test out a number of different definitions and it will be your job as a reader to discern which definition of happiness (or justice or politics, etc. etc.) that he settles upon. After all, happiness had been commonly defined as many different things, such as having wealth, pleasure, good health, knowledge, etc. Indeed, each person seems to define happiness by his own status in life: the philosopher tends to think happiness is found in knowledge while the wealthy or the envious poor might see happiness resting in the amount of one’s wealth.

In § 5, Aristotle outlines why he thinks that happiness (eudaemonia) is not pleasure, since this does not befit a person of action; those who find happiness to pleasure are slaves, not free. Happiness also isn’t the seeking of honor for a similar reason: one must rely on others to be honored. In § 4, Aristotle argues against the Platonic notion of the good. For Plato, the Good is a universal idea, encompassing everything. For Aristotle, however, each science has its own good. We will come back to this argument when we study The Symposium. (This will also be likely related to a final paper question comparing the work of Aristotle and Plato.)

In §7, Aristotle relates an important distinction between useful goods and goods-in-themselves. We aim for happiness in itself; goodness (and later virtue) are goods-in-themselves. But such things as wealth are not ends-in-themselves, since we aim for wealth in order to gain something else, namely happiness. Happiness, Aristotle argues, “ apparently something complete and self-sufficient, since it is the end of the things pursued in action” (1097b). Also, note that Aristotle is clear here that happiness is not a property that one gains and is able to keep for all time; happiness is an activity. We aim for this highest good all the time – it is a wellness of living that we shoot for in our other activities, such as work and school – but it is not something that we can gain, like a diploma, and carry around with us.

Also in Book I:

• Aristotle argues that a child cannot be happy, because it can’t partake in the life of the community with friends. Happiness needs a complete life (§11).

• For Aristotle, it is not fortune or fate that decides whether one is happy (say, by guiding one to the winning lottery ticket), but rather it “is the activities expressing virtue that control happiness” (1100a).

• The essence of being human, as opposed to animals and plants, is to act in accordance with reason (§13).

• There are three types of goods: goods of the body, external goods (such as property), and goods of the soul. The last is the most important.

• Politic science aims at producing laws that cultivate nobility in the city’s citizens. Aristotle will come back to this in Book 10. Aristotle will argue that a city must have a good education system in order for it to have good people as its citizens.

Book II:

Quick Narrative Synopsis: Aristotle begins Book II by tying together the notions of deliberate choice, reason, and prudence. These will become more important later as we study Book VI. The main distinction that Aristotle makes is between those who happen to act virtuously and those who are virtuous. In other words, a person can happen to act virtuous without meaning to, such as if someone slipped and fell, knocking over someone from an on-coming bus. For Aristotle, virtue lies in one’s use of the freedom of deliberative choice to act virtuous (1105b). Nevertheless, we shouldn’t take this to mean that Aristotle doesn’t place great value on acting virtuously: to be virtuous one must act on one’s virtuous choices; one cannot be virtuous if one’s acts are rarely in accord with his or her wishes to be virtuous. In addition, it is by acting virtuous – as we may do by rote as we grow older (such as when we are children and don’t steal out of fear of being punished – that we form the good habits for when we are mature enough to act virtuous for its own sake. This requires a good political system in which the elders take care to make sure that the one are inculcated into a virtuous lifestyle. As we will see later in the NE, it isn’t a matter of ethical data or rules that can be passed on from parent to child, but rather a way of being, i.e. habits formed from the earliest age possible, that can greatly help one to be virtuous later in life. Only one who has been brought up with good virtuous habits will be able to understand later on the reasons hat one should be virtuous; without these habits formed early, as Aristotle puts it, even the most brilliant teacher (or, in our case, a good reading of the NE) will be met with deaf ears to his or her attempts to persuade his or her students into acting virtuous. Another way of putting all of this is that virtues and vices (the opposite of virtue) are not just a matter of feelings: “We are neither praised nor blamed insofar as we have feelings … virtues are decisions of some kind, or require decision” (1105b). Further, Aristotle defines virtue: “[E]very virtue causes its possessors to be in a good state and to perform their functions well; the virtue of eyes, for instance makes the eyes and their functioning excellent … If this is true in every case, then the virtue of a human being will likewise be the state that makes a human being good and makes him perform his function well” (1106a).

Book III:

Aristotle begins Book III by noting that people receive praise, blame, or pity based on whether their actions are voluntary or involuntary. An involuntary action is one done out of force (for example, if you are held at gun-point in order to do something) or ignorance (i.e. you don’t know that what you are doing is a vice). The ethics of virtue can only take up those actions that are voluntary (in fact, as Aristotle defines it, actions [praxis] must always be voluntary) (§1). Aristotle combats the argument that everything is forced, since we are led by our passions to act one way or another. For Aristotle, as we will see clearly in Book VI, the virtuous person, by habit, learns to use reason and deliberation, and not passions. Yes, Aristotle agrees that many men are slaves to their passions. But at some point they have chosen to be led by them, and what’s more, most people led by their passions do not regret their actions after the fact, suggesting that indeed they chose to live this way. In other words, an action performed through temper or desire is still voluntary (see 1111a).

In §2, Aristotle turns to decision. Only adult males, for Aristotle, can make decisions. This does not mean that children and animals cannot do something voluntarily, but it means that decision is a category or class of voluntariness (just as flounder is a category or class of fish). As Aristotle notes, “the actions we do on the spur of the moment [and A. is assuming that animals and children simply do things on the spur of the moment] are said to be voluntary, but not to express decision” (1111a). The ability to make decisions, by use of practical reason, is a defining characteristic of being a human being. Aristotle then turns to distinguishing between wishes and decisions. Wishes, for A., are for things that take place beyond the scope of our agency: We can wish for world peace or immortality, but these are beyond what we can accomplish ourselves. However, we can decide to do our homework and study for our favorite class. This is an important distinction because for Aristotle, it is not our wishes – sorry to all the Ms America contestants that have wished for world peace – but what we decide is what counts for our character.

Toward the end of §2, Aristotle notes that decision and choice is intimately tied up with deliberation: “For decision involves reason and thought, and even the name itself would seem to indicate that [the decision (prohaireton)] is chosen [hiareton] before [pro] other things” (1112a). In §3, Aristotle notes that deliberation occurs “where the outcome is unclear and the right way to act is undefined. And we enlist partners [this will be important later when he talks about friendship] on large issues when we distrust our own ability to decide [the right answer]” (1112a). Further, as Aristotle notes, we deliberate about the means for achieving an end, not the end itself. For example, as doctor can deliberate on the means for curing his or her patient, but he cannot deliberate, and thus decide, that his patient will be cured; the means must be deliberated upon first. To put it another way, deliberation is a form of inquiry, which thinks about means, but not all inquiry is deliberation; some forms of inquiry think about the ends that doctors, human beings, etc. should achieve. Aristotle summarizes his view nicely: “What we deliberate about is the same as what we decide to do, except by the time we decide to do it, it is definite; for what we decide to do is what we have judged [to be correct] as a result of deliberation” (1112b).

In §4, Aristotle turns again to wishes: a man of virtue will wish for what is truly good; a man of vice will not necessarily do so. Most people think that the good is pleasure and thus their judgment about the good is deceived. In §5, Aristotle ties together his whole discussion earlier about wish and decision: we wish for an end; we deliberate and decide for the means to the end (1113a). Aristotle then turns to actions and habits. Yes, Aristotle argues, we often no longer deliberate upon what we do because of bad habits; nevertheless, we must have had a deliberate choice at the beginning before we formed the bad habits. As such, both habits and actions are voluntary since we can choose to behave in a certain way at the very the beginning.

Book VI

First, let’s back up a bit to recall that Aristotle’s NE is focused on reason, deliberation, choice, and action because these are, he believes, the natural starting point for any discussions of ethics. Without decision-making, there would be no such things as ethics, since we would simply follow some pre-programmed fate; this is why Aristotle spends a great length of time on the questions of happiness [eudaemonia] (why we choose one thing over another), virtue [aretē] (the character that we would have in making correct choices), voluntariness (whether we can make choices in the first place), and action [praxis](the means by which we seek to fulfill a certain goal).If In short, Aristotle’s ethics is mostly concerned with praiseworthy and blameworthy actions and their connection, if any, to praiseworthy and blameworthy states of mind. Ethics, we should recall, is a subset of political science, and the examples Aristotle will use in Book VI will mostly have to do with a political leader deliberating over decisions to be made for the sake of the polis or city-state. Let’s also recall that eudaemonia (happiness) is the end that each of us wants for its own sake. Nobody wants eudaemonia for something else; we don’t want happiness in order to become rich, but the other way around. Aristotle begins NE arguing that this is the natural human function, in the same way the nutritive life is essential to what a plant is and desire is essential to what an animal is. This may seem a contradiction to what we said earlier, namely that a human being is defined by its ability to reason. For Aristotle, the two are intertwined. The good life must be guided by reason in its two forms: sophia and phronēsis. Sophia, we shall see, tells us what our ultimate goals are and phronēsis guides us to the means for getting there. As such, the human good is action led by virtue toward happiness.

Phronēsis is one part of the soul’s reason; the other is sophia, which is the type of reason that gives one access to universal ideas. For example, as Aristotle points out, a child can have sophia because he or she can do mathematics and follow rules. But phronēsis is something that needs to be developed through experience; for Aristotle, this is something that any child (and woman, as he notes in the Politics) lacks. By emphasizing phronēsis, Aristotle is trying to show that virtue is part and parcel with grasping the needs of a given situation in order to make the right decision. We cannot be given rules on how to act beforehand. We are given choices: we can choose side A or side B and sophia can only tell us that our ultimate goal is happiness, since this is univeral. What sophia cannot tell us is how to proceed. Making the right ethical choice, then, means having experience in particular situations. Only then can we know whether choosing side A or side B will be more likely to give us the outcome we want. Aristotle even goes so far as to suggest that phronēsis is like a type of visual perception in which one deliberates and “sees” what to do.

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