PHL109: Ancient Philosophy: Politics

A touchstone in Western debates about society and government, the Politics is Aristotle's classic work on the nature of political community. Here, he argues that people band together into political communities to secure a good and self-sufficient life. He discusses the merits and defects of various regimes or ways of organizing political community--democracy in particular--and in the process examines such subjects as slavery, economics, the family, citizenship, justice, and revolution.Peter Simpson offers a new translation of Aristotle's text from the ancient Greek. He renders the Politics into an English version that is accurate, readable, and in certain difficult passages, original. His innovative analytical division of the whole text, with headings and accompanying summaries, makes clear the progression and unity of the argument--a helpful feature for students or readers unfamiliar with Aristotle's studied brevity and often elliptical style. Books 7 and 8 are repositioned--a move supported by Aristotle's own words and much scholarly opinion--to restore the work's logical organization and coherence. Finally, Simpson places the Politics in its proper philosophical context by beginning the text with the last chapter of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, which he sees as an introduction to what follows.

This reissue of Robinson's classic volume on Books III and IV of the Politics is brought up-to-date by a new supplementary essay and bibliography.

The Politics is one of Aristotle's most important works, having had an inestimable influence on political thought up until the present day. This volume provides a clear and accurate translation of the first two books together with helpful philosophical commentary.

In the most original interpretation of Aristotle's Politics in years, Michael Davis delivers many memorable and provocative formulations of Aristotle's messages concerning the constitutive tensions of political life. He traces the uncanny parallel between politics and philosophy in Aristotle, arguing that their connection is much deeper than it is ordinarily understood to be and that, for Aristotle, understanding either requires understanding the other. Davis presents his interpretation with a striking clarity and accessibility that makes the book a pleasure to read.

The papers in this volume have been collected together with a view to providing a comprehensive companion to Aristotle's "Politics". One dates from the 19th century, four were written specially for this volume, and the rest have been revised and edited to suit the volume's needs.

Fred Miller offers a controversial reappraisal of the Politics, suggesting that nature, justice, and rights are central to Aristotle's political thought. He sheds new light on Aristotle's relation to modern natural rights theorists, and to the current liberalism-communitarianism debate.

This book provides a critical examination of the major doctrines in Aristotle's Politics, as well as other works, such as the Nicomachean Ethics, that are relevant to political thought.

Offering the first complete translation into modern English of Aquinas' unfinished commentary on Aristotle's Politics, this translation follows the definitive Leonine text of Aquinas and reproduces in English those passages of William of Moerbeke's exacting yet elliptical translation of the Politics from which Aquinas worked. Bekker numbers have been added to passages from the Politics for easy reference. Students of the history of political thought will welcome this study of a great classic, a commentary by a student of Aristotle who is also a great political theorist in his own right.

Aristotle is the most influential philosopher of practice, and Knight's new book explores the continuing importance of Aristotelian philosophy. First, it examines the theoretical bases of what Aristotle said about ethical, political and productive activity. It then traces ideas of practice through such figures as St Paul, Luther, Hegel, Heidegger and recent Aristotelian philosophers, and evaluates Alasdair MacIntyre's contribution. Knight argues that, whereas Aristotle's own thought legitimated oppression, MacIntyre's revision of Aristotelianism separates ethical excellence from social elitism and justifies resistance. With MacIntyre, Aristotelianism becomes revolutionary. MacIntyre's case for the Thomistic Aristotelian tradition originates in his attempt to elaborate a Marxist ethics informed by analytic philosophy. He analyses social practices in teleological terms, opposing them to capitalist institutions and arguing for the cooperative defence of our moral agency. In condensing these ideas, Knight advances a theoretical argument for the reformation of Aristotelianism and an ethical argument for social change.

One of the most influential works in the history of political theory, Aristotle's Politics is a treatise in practical philosophy, intended to inform legislators and to create the conditions for virtuous and self-sufficient lives for the citizens of a state. In this Companion, distinguished scholars offer new perspectives on the work and its themes. After an opening exploration of the relation between Aristotle's ethics and his politics, the central chapters follow the sequence of the eight books of the Politics, taking up questions such as the role of reason in legitimizing rule, the common good, justice, slavery, private property, citizenship, democracy and deliberation, unity, conflict, law and authority, and education. The closing chapters discuss the interaction between Aristotle's political thought and contemporary democratic theory. The volume will provide a valuable resource for those studying ancient philosophy, classics, and the history of political thought.

This book presents a thorough and systematic integration of Aristotle s analysis of friendship with the main lines of the rest of his work in Politics and Nicomachean Ethics. The author conveys a clear sense of the continuing illumination that Aristotle s analysis of friendship provides to contemporary ethical theorists and to students of Aristotle. Other Selves speaks to both audiences."

Prefatory : The Eden myth and the science of man --
History as regress : the Works and days, the Statesman, the Laws --
History as progress : the Prometheus bound, the Antigone, Diodorus I --
History as compromise : the Protagoras, Republic II, Politics I --
The fragments of the Greek anthropologists --
The political theory of Democritus --
In defence of democracy --
Human opinion, pragmatic judgment, and the parliamentary process --
The method and validity of political decision --
Antiphon --
The emasculation of liberalism in Aristotle's Ethics --
The rejection of liberalism in Aristotle's Politics --
Greek liberalism--the full flower.