Some Moans: 1. Voice! Is it clear who is making the claim in question.

1. Some Moans: 1. Voice! Is it clear who is making the claim in question. Happiness is an inclusive end. Ackrill argues that happiness is an inclusive end. 3. Ackrill claims that Aristotle conceives happiness as an inclusive end. Ackrill claims that the best way to interpret Aristotle’s argument in NE, is by construing happiness as an inclusive end. 2. Don’t emulate! Use your own words. “As is well known, the various participants of the nomos physis debate from the pre-Socratics onwards…” “There are a variety of translation choices of the Greek word tuche, none of which is satisfactory…” “This is one of the only occurrences of this verb in the entire Aristotelian corpus…” 3. Always back up your claims with evidence from the text.

2. Read more widely (and carefully). • Think more, before you write. • Write more carefully. (Re-read and rewrite.) Ackrill or Aristotle: The Politics ed. Stephen Everson, CUP 1988. Trevor Saunders Book I, 1-6, 13. Book III What is a citizen; the relation between citizen and state; vi criterion of good regime; discussion of the different regimes. Book VII 1-5, 7-10, 13-15 The best state. Happiness and the good life for individuals and the polis; Book VIII, 1 only.

3. 1. Synopsis of the Aristotle’s Politics I. Introduction. The Origins of the Polis. Natural Orders and Hierarchies. Economy and Trade. II. Candidates for Good and Bad Constitutions or Regimes (of city-states) III &IV Description and Systematic Classification of Good and Bad regimes IV Problems with various kinds of demokratia. 11&12 role of the middle classes. V (Largely repeats IV) Ch. 9 only loyalty and education. Causes of revolution. VI Of demokratia, oligarchy and the distribution of offices. 2-5 Features of demokratia VII The Ideal State. Happiness and the good life for individuals and the polis; VIII Education of the Citizens

4. Every polis is a community of some kind and every community is established with a view to some good; for everyone always acts in order to obtain that which they think good. But if all communitiesaim at some good, the state or political community, which is the highest (most magisterial) of all, and which embraces all the rest, aims at a good which is greater and more magisterial than any other. (1252a1 Jowett)

5. 1. Political Science is about the highest good or the happiness/eudaimonia of the city. 1253b30 “the polis ...originates in the bare needs of life and continues in existence for the sake of the good life” 1281a1 “The telos of the city-state is the good life.” 1280a31 “a polis exists for the sake of the good life and not for the sake of mere life.” 1328a35 “for a polis is a community of equals aiming at the best life possible” Politics – ta politika Political Science – e politike techne Citizen – polites Polis = a form of association or community that exists for the sake of some (common) good. A city state.

6. 2.2 What is a polis? Or Why is the polis as it is? 1. material cause of the polis location, space human beings – (their needs, desires, instincts), walls, stones, water, harbour 2. moving cause of the polis (social instinct + economic need?) actions of the lawmaker - demiurge, human reason, logos • formal cause of the polis the constitution/régime 1276b1 laws and practices 4. final cause of the polis economic self-sufficiency 1253a1 the good life III, 9 1280 b25 eudaimonia I, 2, 1252 b30

7. 1253a1 Besides the final cause and end of a thing is the best, and to be self-sufficing is the end and the best. 1253b30 “the polis ...originates in the bare needs of life and continues in existence for the sake of the good life.” 1281a1 “The telos of the city-state is the good life.” 1280a 31 “a polis exists for the sake of the good life and not for the sake of mere life.” 1328a35 “for a polis is a community of equals aiming at the best life possible”

8. Recall the idea of the ethics thathappiness is mainly up to us. (So are character and virtue.) Like ethics (the doctrine of good character) which falls under it, political (and legislative) science is: “the philosophy of human affairs” 1181 b15 (ē peri ta anthrōpina philosophia). This means that it has a properly defined object domain. Not every object is appropriate object or practical deliberation. Why? Because: “We deliberate only about what is up to us and in the reach of our actions.” (bouleuometha de peri tōn eph hēmin kai praktōn) NE 1112a3-

9. Not Open Open eternal and necessary things temporal and contingent things what is not up to us what is within our practical control what an idiot might deliberate what a rational person would i.e. nature, (phusis) necessity (anankē) everything that works by human chance/luck (tuchē). mind or human agency other people’s affairs our own affairs “we do not deliberate about all human affairs. No Spartan deliberates about how the Scythians might have the best political system.Rather each group of human beings deliberates about the actions they can do.” NE 1112a28

10. Problem: 1. According to Aristotle political deliberation is about all those things in the realm of human affairs that are up to us and are open to political practical deliberation. But also: 2. According to Aristotle the state exists by nature, and man is by nature a political nature. 2. Has been taken to imply 3. 3. Human beings – citizens – are parts of a larger organic social whole – the polis.

11. This has been taken to imply a very illiberal view of citizenship, and even implicit totalitarianism. “Further, the polis is by nature clearly prior to the family and to the individual, since the whole is of necessity prior to the part; for example if the whole body be destroyed, there will be no foot or hand, except homonymously, as we might speak of a stone hand; for when destroyed the hand will be no better than that. But things are defined by their function and power; and we ought not to say that they are the same when they no longer have their proper quality, but only that they are homonymous. The proof that the state is a creation of nature and prior to the individual is that the individuaol, when isolated, is not self-sufficing; and therefore he is like a part in relation to the whole. But he who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a God, he is no part of the polis.” (1253a19) “the whole is naturally superior to the part.” 1288a25.

12. “We are speaking of the best form of government, i.e. that under which the polis will be most happy…” 1328a34. On this reading then Aristotle looks like a theorist of positive freedom. The self-determination of the whole political community is paramount, and the (negative) freedom of its individual citizens is of only secondary importance. Is this an inconsistency. Can this inconsistency be reconciled? Can it be the case both a) that the polis exists by nature. b) that political matters are open to practical deliberation. Why does Aristtotle claim a) and what does he mean by it?

13. When several villages are united in a single complete community, large enough to be nearly or quite sufficing, the polis comes into existence, originating in mere life, and existing essentially for the sake of a good life. And therefore, if the earlier forms of society are natural, so is the state, for it is the end of them, and the nature of a thing is its end. For what each thing is when fully developed, we call its nature, whether we are speaking of a man a horse or a household. Besides the final cause and end of a thing is the best, and to be self-sufficing is the end and the best. Hence it is evident that the state is a creation of nature, and that man is by nature a political animal. 1252b28-1253a2

14. The meaning of “by nature” (phusei). 1. (context: the so -called nomos phusis debate) by nature (phusei) = not by convention (nomōi) 2. By a process which when left not by chance unhindered leads always or for the most part to a certain result. What is usual – or the norm unusual/anomolous EE “nature s the cause of what is the same and for the most part, chance of the contrary.” Phys A thing is due to nature…impediment.” 199b15 • Coming about under its own by artifice, by the steam or automatically. human hand

15. 4. Context Aristotle’s teleology) In accordance with the final end not in accordance or the perfection of something: with the final end. the telos of human life – eudaimonia. The state exists by nature, then, in several different senses. It comes into existence: • because of man’s sexual/metaphysical urges (not by choice). 1252a30 • Because of man’s instinct for self-preservation (also not by choice) 1252a31 • Because it meets man’s economic needs (among other things). N.B. 1280a 31 + 1280 b25.

16. 4. Because it satisfies human beings instinctive fundamental sociality – the desire for human company etc. 1253 a 30 “A social instinct (hormē) is implanted in all men by nature....” 1278b 20 ”...man is by nature a political animal. And therefore, men even when they do not require one another’s help, desire to live together, although they are also brought together by their common interest insofar as they each attain a measure of well-being.” All these things probably count among the moving causes of the polis. But they are also part of what maintains it in existence – its nature.

17. 5. Because living in a polis is the way in which human beings reach their final end - eudaimonia NB It looks like The Polis has two final ends – self-sufficiency and eudaimonia Besides the final cause and end of a thing is the best, and to be self-sufficing is the end and the best.’ 1253a1 Complex function: Economic self-sufficiency, capable of being defended militarily, and being socially self-reproducing. “the polis ...originates in the bare needs of life and continues in existence for the sake of the good life” 1253b30 Why cannot one be virtuous alone? For several reasons

18. i. Many virtues e.g. generosity magnanimity can only be exercised among other people. ii. Virtues can only be acquired through socialisation and education – in family and then through habits acquired through living according to custom and law. iii Eudaimonia has certain material threshold conditions that can only be met by living in an economically self-sufficient political community. iv One has to have friendship and love to be happy. v On one reading eudaimonia takes the form of the practical life, life of the statesman, of which a necessary part is the activity of holding office.