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A Study On Revolutionary Ideas of Aristotle: Mr. B.K. Mahakool (Faculty Member in Political Science)
A Study On Revolutionary Ideas of Aristotle: Mr. B.K. Mahakool (Faculty Member in Political Science)
IDEAS OF ARISTOTLE
SUBMITTED TO:
SUBMITTED BY:
APOORVA CHANDRA
Semester: 2, Section: C, Roll No: 25, Program: B.A. LL.B
(Hons)
justice, equity
constitutionalism
politics and state
RESEARCH METHEDOLOGY
Aristotle states that A specific habit differs from a specific faculty or science, as each of the
latter covers opposites, e.g. the science of health is also the science of sickness; whereas the habit
of justice does not cover but is opposed to the habit of injustice. Justice itself is a term used in
various senses; and the senses in which injustice is used vary correspondingly.
The citizen, Aristotle claims, has specific rights and is all equal. So, each citizen has
the same humanitarian, economic, social rights as any other citizen. He believed that birth place,
and ancestry did not play a factor in what defined a citizen, but his involvement within
politics. Parry (1972) quotes Aristotle, a man who shares in the administration of justice and
in the holding of office, as a definition for what a citizen is. This also suggests the idea that
citizens and justice were in control of each other. To further Aristotles idea to what a citizen is
would also allow us to see how obscure his ideas can be.
ARISTOTLE'S IDEAS AND PHILOSPHY
Aristotle not only studied almost every subject possible at the time, but made
significant contributions to most of them. In physical science, Aristotle studied anatomy,
astronomy, embryology, geography, geology, meteorology, physics and zoology. In philosophy,
he wrote on aesthetics, ethics, government, metaphysics, politics, economics, psychology,
rhetoric and theology. He also studied education, foreign customs, literature and poetry. His
combined works constitute a virtual encyclopedia of Greek knowledge.
With the Prior Analytics, Aristotle is credited with the earliest study of
formal logic, and his conception of it was the dominant form of Western logic until 19th century
advances in mathematical logic. Kant stated in the Critique of Pure Reason that Aristotle's theory
of logic completely accounted for the core of deductive inference.
Injustice includes law-breaking, grasping and unfairness. Grasping is taking too much of what is
good only; unfairness is concerned with both what is good and what is injurious. But in the legal
sense, whatever law lays down is assumed to be just. Law, however, covers the whole field of
virtuous action as it affects our neighbors, so that in this general sense justice is an inclusive term
equivalent to righteousness. We, however, must confine ourselves to the specific sense of the
terms. Grasping is, in fact, included in unfairness, which is the real opposite of specific justice; it
includes law-breaking only so far as the law is broken for the sake of gain.
In the State, as such, justice is obtained from the law and its
administrators; justice is the virtue of the magistrate. Since he has nothing to gain or lose
himself, it has been supposed that justice is 'another's good,' not our own. In the family, justice
does not come in, the whole household being, in a sense, parts of the palter families; and as you
cannot be unjust to yourself, you cannot be unjust to your household. In the State, what is just is
fixed partly by the nature of things, partly by law or convention.
What we must call equity may be opposed to justice but only in the
legal sense of that term. It is justice freed from the errors incidental to the particular case, for
which the law cannot provide. Injustice, again, is found in self-injury or suicide; which the law
penalizes, not because the individual thereby treats himself unjustly, but because he does an
injustice to the community. It is only by metaphor that a man may be called unjust to himself, an
expression which means that the relation between one part of him and another part of him is
analogous to the unjust relation between persons.
ARISTOTLE'S IDEAS ON STATE AND
CITIZENSHIP
Aristotles ideas regarding justice, citizenship and the state can often appear to be in depth to a
point where its difficult to discern what Aristotle is trying to say. Examples of this can be seen
throughout much of his works in ethics and philosophies, whereby he links the connection of
justice, citizenship and the state in an almost scientific calculation, making each a dynamic factor
that is subject to change should another change.
The citizen, Aristotle claims, has specific rights and is all equal.
So, each citizen has the same humanitarian, economic, social rights as any other citizen. He
believed that birth place, and ancestry did not play a factor in what defined a citizen, but his
involvement within politics. Parry (1972) quotes Aristotle, a man who shares in the
administration of justice and in the holding of office, as a definition for what a citizen is. This
also suggests the idea that citizens and justice were in control of each other. To further
Aristotles idea to what a citizen is would also allow us to see how
obscure his ideas can be. For example, women were not considered to be citizens, in his view, for
they lacked the fundamental reasoning required for politics. Also, artisans and those who made a
living were not considered to be included in what defined a citizen. This shows the degree of
definition Aristotle was willing to achieve, essentially alienated a vast majority of the population
of the city states. In actuality, one can conclude that Aristotles idyllic scenario of what a citizen
was, were the aristocrats of society, the educated and wealthy elite who didnt need to work. To
further expand this scenario, if the elites were the citizen body, who was then part of the judicial
and political system within a democracy, such as in Athens, an oligarchy could essentially be
created. Aristotle also argues that it is in the polis, or city state, that one can be ruled and be
ruled, thus suggested a social system of hierarchy. He does not explicitly link this to citizenship,
however.
Throughout Aristotles ideas regarding the state, justice and citizenship, he maintains the idea
that there is a strong link between all three. As one change, so does the other and each is
dependant on the other. This proves to replay throughout history as the role of the citizen changes
if the states constitution changes.
In order to appreciate this analogy it is helpful to observe that Aristotle explains the production
of an artifact in terms of four causes: the material, formal, efficient, and final causes For
example, clay (material cause) is molded into a vase shape (formal cause) by a potter (efficient or
moving cause) so that it can contain liquid (final cause). One can also explain the existence of
the city-state in terms of the four causes.
Note on Citations
. Passages in Aristotle are cited as follows: title of treatise (italics), book (Roman numeral),
chapter (Arabic numeral), line reference. Line references are keyed to the 1831 edition of
Immanuel Bekker which had two columns (a and b) on each page. Politics is abbreviated
asPol. and Nicomachean Ethics as NE. In this article, Pol. I.2.1252b27, for example, refers
toPolitics book I, chapter 2, page 1252, column b, line 27. Most translations include the Bekker
page number with column letter in the margin followed by every fifth line number.
Passages in Plato are cited in a similar fashion, except the line references are to the Stephanus
edition of 1578 in which pages were divided into five parts (a through e).
Barker, Ernest, revised by Richard Stalley. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Jowett, Benjamin, in The Complete Works of Aristotle, The Revised Oxford Translation,
vol. 2, ed. Jonathan Barnes. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984.
The Clarendon Aristotle Series (Oxford University Press) includes translation and commentary
of the Politics in four volumes:
Richard Robinson with a supplementary essay by David Keyt, Politics III-IV (1995).