Aristotle. - The Politics

OXFORD WORLDS CLASSICS

POLITICS

ARISTOTLE (384322 BC), with Plato one of the two greatest philosophers of antiquity, and in the view of many the greatest philosopher of all time, lived and taught in Athens for most of his career. He began as a student in Platos Academy and may for some time have acted as tutor to Alexander the Great. He left writings on a prodigious variety of subjects, covering the whole field of knowledge from biology and astronomy to rhetoric and literary criticism, from political theory to the most abstract reaches of philosophy. The Politics was probably written towards the end of his career when he was head of the Lyceum and draws on Aristotles own extensive research into the constitutional affairs of the Greek cities. It is possibly the most influential book on political theory ever to be written.

Sir ERNEST BARKER (18741960) held fellowships at several Oxford colleges before becoming Principal of Kings College London in 1920 and Professor of Political Science at Cambridge in 1928. He retired in 1939. He was one of the most distinguished scholars of his day and had a lifelong love for Aristotles Politics. His many publications included The Political Thought of Plato and Aristotle (London, 1906). His translation of the Politics was first published in 1946.

R. F. STALLEY studied Classics and Philosophy at Oxford and spent a year at Harvard as Frank Knox Memorial Fellow. He subsequently taught philosophy at the University of Glasgow. His main interest has been in the political philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. His publications in this field include An Introduction to Platos Lam (Oxford, 1983).

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OXFORD WORLDS CLASSICS

ARISTOTLE

Translated by
ERNEST BARKER

Revised with an Introduction and Notes by
R. F. STALLEY

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First published as a Worlds Classics paperback 1995
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ARISTOTLES Politics raises more clearly than any other text some of the most fundamental issues which confront anyone who attempts to think seriously about the ways in which human societies are organized and governed. These issues are as pressing now as they were in the fourth century BC when the Politics was first written. But although the Politics can still speak to us with a powerful voice there are a number of ways in which it is unlike any modern text and in which it can appear puzzling to the modern reader. First, it is not the work of a narrow specialist but is part of what is probably the most comprehensive system of thought ever devised. We need therefore to relate the Politics to the general principles and methods of Aristotles philosophy. Secondly, the world in which Aristotle lived was very different from our own. So, although the fundamental issues may be the same as those which concern us, the context in which Aristotle raises them may seem very unfamiliar. We have therefore to study the Politics against the background of the Greek world as it was in the fourth century BCa world in which the basic unit of political organization was not the nation state but the small independent city-state or polis. Thirdly, there are, as one might expect, difficulties in the style, organization, and vocabulary of Aristotles writing which have to be addressed if we are to read it with any understanding.

Aristotle was not only a great philosopher but also what we would now call a scientist. In particular he wrote extensively on biological topics and his study of biology clearly exercised a powerful influence on his thought in other areas. It makes sense therefore to begin a study of the Politics by thinking about Aristotles conception of nature (phusis) in its bearing on political matters.

During the fifth century the Greeks had evidently become particularly conscious that laws and customs varied from people to people and from place to place. According to a story told by Herodotus (III. 8), the Greeks were shocked to hear that some Indian peoples ate their dead. The Indians were equally shocked to hear that the Greeks burned theirs. Thus what seemed right to one people seemed wrong to another. To understand such phenomena many Greek thinkers used the two contrasting terms phusis or nature and nomos