DR.

RAM MANOHAR LOHIYA NATIONAL LAW

UNIVERSITY, LUCKNOW

Final Draft

Subject: - Political Science

Project on: - Aristotle’s Political Thought

SUBMITTED TO: - SUBMITTED BY:

Miss. Monica Srivastava Shreshtha Aditya
Asst. Professor Roll No. 132
Political Science Semester 1st (Section-B)
R.M.L.N.L.U. B.A. LL.B (Hons.)
 CONTENTS

1. Acknowledgment

2. Introduction

3. Aristotle: The Father of Political Science

4. View on Origin of State

5. Aristotle’s Politics –
 Purpose of the city
 Man, the political animal
 Slavery & Women
 Citizenship
 Classification of city-state
constitutions
 Education of the young

6. Conclusion

7. Bibliography
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

First of all I would like to thank my teacher Monica Srivatava for giving me
such a golden opportunity to show my skills through this project and enhance
my knowledge on this topic. The project is a result of an extensive research
study, hard work and labor, that is put into to make it worth reading and this
was possible only with the heartous support of my subject teacher.
I wish to acknowledge that in completing this project I had full support of my
library staff. This project would not have been completed without the help of
my university’s library Dr. Madhu Limaye library which had various quality
books on the chosen topic and the university’s internet facility that helped me in
making my research a success.
 INTRODUCTION

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher, disciple of Plato and teacher of

Alexander, the Great. He was born in 384 BC. His father was a
physician and he studied in Plato’s Academy for 17 years. His writings
cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater,
music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, and
zoology. Together with Plato and Socrates, Aristotle is one of the most
important founding figures in Western philosophy. Aristotle's writings
were the first to create a comprehensive system of Western Philosophy,
encompassing morality, aesthetics, logic, science, politics, and
metaphysics.

Aristotle said, “A state is not a mere society, having a common place,

established for the prevention of mutual crime and for the sake of
exchange. Political society exists for the sake of noble actions, and not
of mere companionship.”

Aristotle addressed the city in his work titled Politics. Aristotle

considered the city to be a natural community. Moreover, he considered
the city to be prior in importance to the family, which in turn is prior to
the individual, "for the whole must of necessity be prior to the part".

The aim of the Politics, Aristotle says, is to investigate, on the basis of

the constitutions collected, what makes for good government and what
makes for bad government and to identify the factors favorable or
unfavorable to the preservation of a constitution.
ARISTOTLE: THE FATHER OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

In the words of Renan, “Socrates gave philosophy to mankind and

Aristotle gave science to it.”
It is said that Aristotle laid the foundation of a real political science by
his keen and practical political approach and systematic treatment of the
subject. He may be called the ‘Scientist of Politics’ because of his
empirical study, he collected his data with care and minuteness and
clarified and defined it and drew logical assumptions. Aristotle was the
first political scientist who excelled in the field of science, logic and
politics.

The common modern understanding of a political community as a

modern state is quite different to Aristotle's understanding. The natural
community according to Aristotle was the city, which functions as a
political "community" or "partnership". The aim of the city is not just to
avoid injustice or for economic stability, but rather to allow at least some
citizens the possibility to live a good life, and to perform beautiful acts:
"The political partnership must be regarded, therefore, as being for the
sake of noble actions, not for the sake of living together." This is
distinguished from modern approaches, beginning with social
contract theory, according to which individuals leave the state of
nature because of "fear of violent death" or its "inconveniences."

Aristotle is hence known as the father of political science due to his

contribution to the study of political science and the scientific and
logical methods that he used.
 VIEW ON ORIGIN ON STATE

“State exists for the sake of good life and not for the sake of life itself.”
– Aristotle
Aristotle was of the view that the origin of the state is present in the
inherent desire of man to satisfy his economic needs and racial instincts.
The family is formed by male and female on the one hand and the master
and slave on the other hand. Then they work for achievement of their
desires. They love together and form such a family in household, which
has its moral and social unity and value. The three essentials to build the
state on perfects lines are fellowship, practical organization and justice.

Aristotle tells the story of how cities have historically come into being. The first
partnerships among human beings would have been between “persons who
cannot exist without one another” he says that these pairs of people come
together and form a household, which exists for the purpose of meeting the
needs of daily life (such as food, shelter, clothing, and so forth). The family is
only large enough to provide for the bare necessities of life, sustaining its
members’ lives and allowing for the reproduction of the species.

Over time, the family expands, and as it does it will come into contact with
other families. Eventually a number of such families combine and form a
village. Villages are better than families because they are more self-sufficient.
The significant change in human communities, however, comes when a number
of villages combine to form a city. A city is not just a big village, but is
fundamentally different: “The partnership arising from [the union of] several
villages that is complete is the city. It reaches a level of full self-sufficiency, so
to speak; and while coming into being for the sake of living, it exists for the
sake of living well”
 ARISTOTLE’S POLITICS

The aim of the Politics, Aristotle says, is to investigate, on the basis of the
constitutions collected, what makes for good government and what makes for
bad government and to identify the factors favorable or unfavorable to the
preservation of a constitution.

 Purpose of the city –

Aristotle begins the Politics by defining its subject, the city or political

partnership. Doing so requires him to explain the purpose of the city. Aristotle
says that “It is clear that all partnerships aim at some good, and that the
partnership that is most authoritative of all and embraces all the others does so
particularly, and aims at the most authoritative good of all. This is what is called
the city or the political partnership” 
Aristotle does not define the political community by the laws that it follows or
by the group that holds power or as an entity controlling a particular territory.
Instead he defines it as a partnership. The citizens of a political community are
partners, and as with any other partnership they pursue a common good. In the
case of the city it is the most authoritative or highest good. The most
authoritative and highest good of all, for Aristotle, is the virtue and happiness of
the citizens, and the purpose of the city is to make it possible for the citizens to
achieve this virtue and happiness. Aristotle takes up the popular opinion that
political rule is really the same as other kinds of rule: that of kings over their
subjects, of fathers over their wives and children, and of masters over their
slaves. This opinion, he says, is mistaken. In fact, each of these kinds of rule is
different.
  Man, the political animal –

“That man is much more a political animal than any kind of bee or any herd
animal is clear. For, as we assert, nature does nothing in vain, and man alone
among the animals has speech. Speech serves to reveal the advantageous and
the harmful and hence also the just and unjust.” – Aristotle

Unlike bees or herd animals, humans have the capacity for speech or, in the
Greek, logos. Logos means not only speech but also reason.  Here the linkage
between speech and reason is clear: the purpose of speech, a purpose assigned
to men by nature, is to reveal what is advantageous and harmful, and by doing
so to reveal what is good and bad, just and unjust. This knowledge makes it
possible for human beings to live together, and at the same time makes it
possible for us to pursue justice as part of the virtuous lives we are meant to
live. 

Although nature brings us together – we are by nature political animals – nature

alone does not give us all of what we need to live together: “There is in
everyone by nature an impulse toward this sort of partnership. And yet the one
who first constituted a city is responsible for the greatest of goods”. We must
figure out how to live together for ourselves through the use of reason and
speech, discovering justice and creating laws that make it possible for human
community to survive and for the individuals in it to live virtuous lives.

 Slavery & Women –

Aristotle has said that slavery serves the interest of both the master and the
slave. Since he believes that “those who are as different as the soul from the
body or man from beast – and they are in this state if their work is the use of the
body, and if this is the best that can come from them – are slaves by nature. For
he is a slave by nature who is capable of belonging to another – which is also
why he belongs to another – and who participates in reason only to the extent of
perceiving it, but does not have it”
Those who are slaves by nature do not have the full ability to reason.

According to Aristotle, women have their own role in the household, preserving
what the man acquires. However, women do not participate in politics, since
their reason lacks the authority that would allow them to do so, and in order to
properly fulfill this role the wife must pursue her own telos. This is not the
same as that of a man, but as with a man nature intends her to achieve virtues of
the kind that are available to her.

 Citizenship –

For Aristotle, there is more to citizenship than living in a particular place or

sharing in economic activity or being ruled under the same laws. Instead,
citizenship for Aristotle is a kind of activity: “The citizen in an unqualified
sense is defined by no other thing so much as by sharing in decision and office.”

Participation in deliberation and decision making means that the citizen is part
of a group that discusses the advantageous and the harmful, the good and bad,
and the just and unjust, and then passes laws and reaches judicial decisions
based on this deliberative process. This process requires that each citizen
consider the various possible courses of action on their merits and discuss these
options with his fellow citizens
  Classification of city-state constitutions –

After studying a number of real and theoretical city-state's constitutions,

Aristotle classified them according to various criteria. On one side stand the true
(or good) constitutions, which are considered such because they aim for the
common good, and on the other side the perverted (or deviant) ones, considered
such because they aim for the well-being of only a part of the city. The
constitutions are then sorted according to the "number" of those who participate
to the magistracies: one, a few, or many.

No. of persons in whom

Normal Perverted
the power is vested
One Monarchy Tyranny

Few Aristocracy Oligarchy

Many Polity Democracy

 Education of the young –

Aristotle believed that education is so important that it cannot be left to

individual families, as was the custom in Greece. Instead, “Since there is a
single end for the city as a whole, it is evident that education must necessarily
be one and the same for all, and that the superintendence of it should be
common and not on a private basis. For common things the training too should
be made common”
The importance of a common education shaping each citizen so as to enable
him to serve the common good of the city recalls the discussion of how the city
is prior to the individual.
 CONCLUSION

In the project, Aristotle’s views on the connection between the well-being of the
political community and that of the citizens who make it up, his belief that
citizens must actively participate in politics if they are to be happy and virtuous,
and his analysis of what causes and prevents revolution within political
communities have been discussed.
Aristotle has been a source of inspiration for many contemporary theorists.

By studying Aristotle’s political thought we can bring out the positive and
logical theories that have been put forth by him and apply them in today’s
world.
Aristotle believed in the best possible state and gave his own classifications.

Aristotle is considered the father of political science for the very reason that he
had a scientific bend of mind, which helped think of relevant theories based on
logical assumptions.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-politics/#PolView

2. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/34560/Aristotle/254725/Poli

tical-theory

3. http://www.cssforum.com.pk/css-optional-subjects/group-b/political-

science/48798-western-political-thought-aristotle.html

4. http://www.iep.utm.edu/aris-pol/#SH14a

5. http://greenanswers.com/q/277681/ideas-

philosophies/philosophies/because-which-idea-aristotle-called-father-
political-scienc

6. http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/aristotle/Politics.pdf