Aristotle, "Politics"

"Politics" by Aristotle, notes

Book I

§                     “all
communities aim at some good”, and state, being a community, should aim at the
highest good. No, that’s the purpose of a revolutionary party.

§
The family is the association established by
nature for the supply of men’s everyday wants, and the members of it are called
by Charondas ‘companions of the cupboard,’ and by Epimenides the Cretan,
‘companions of the manger.’ But when several families are united, and the
association aims at something more than the supply of daily needs, the first
society to be formed is the village.

§
When several villages are united in a single
complete community, large enough to be nearly or quite self-sufficing, the
state comes into existence, originating in the bare needs of life, and
continuing in existence for the sake of a good life.

§
what each thing is when fully developed, we call
its nature, whether we are speaking of a man, a horse, or a family” – hence, to
consider “nature of the transitional states is to consider them primarily
today.

§
justice is the bond of men in states, for the
administration of justice, which is the determination of what is just, is the
principle of order in political society – that’s one way to put why the former
USSR is breaking up: because it is “unjust”, ruled by criminals.

§
if every instrument could accomplish its own
work, obeying or anticipating the will of others, like the statues of Daedalus,
or the tripods of Hephaestus, which, says the poet,
of their own accord entered the assembly of the Gods; if, in like manner, the
shuttle would weave and the plectrum touch the lyre without a hand to guide
them, chief workmen would not want servants, nor masters slaves – automation is the solution to the slavery of work.
Hence, all progressive workers should be interested in promoting automation.
But, automation also puts the workers out of work, in a system of hired labor.
Hence, a need to overthrow this social system.

§
that some should rule and others be ruled is a
thing not only necessary, but expedient; from the hour of their birth, some are
marked out for subjection, others for rule. – and this is the very thing the
communism calls in question.

§
A’s logic: tame animals are better off when they
are ruled by man; for then they are preserved

§
Different kinds of “professions” in ancient
Greece: The laziest are shepherds, who lead an idle life, and get their
subsistence without trouble from tame animals; their flocks having to wander
from place to place in search of pasture, they are compelled to follow them,
cultivating a sort of living farm. Others support themselves by hunting, which
is of different kinds. Some, for example, are brigands, others, who dwell near
lakes or marshes or rivers or a sea in which there are fish, are fishermen, and
others live by the pursuit of birds or wild beasts. The greater number obtain a
living from the cultivated fruits of the soil. Such are the modes of
subsistence which prevail among those whose industry springs up of itself, and
whose food is not acquired by exchange and retail trade — there is the
shepherd, the husbandman, the brigand, the fisherman, the hunter. + the farmer

Book II

§
the citizens might conceivably have wives and children and property in common, as
Socrates proposes in the Republic of Plato – this gives the community the
greatest unity.

§
People have their meals in common, as in Sparta

Book III

§
In all sciences and arts the end is a good, and
the greatest good and in the highest degree a good in the most authoritative of
all — this is the political science of which the good is justice, in other
words, the common interest. All men think justice to be a sort of equality; and
to a certain extent they agree in the philosophical distinctions which have
been laid down by us about Ethics. For they admit that justice is a thing and
has a relation to persons, and that equals ought to have equality. But there
still remains a question: equality or inequality of what? – increase in income
inequality implies an increase in injustice.

Book IV

§
of governments there are said to be only two
forms — democracy and oligarchy (Aristotle sees the state composed of the
middle-class citizens as the best.)

Book V:

§
Causes of revolutions: “The universal and chief
cause of this revolutionary feeling has been already mentioned; viz., the desire of equality, when men think that they are
equal to others who have more than themselves; or, again, the desire of
inequality and superiority, when conceiving themselves to be superior they
think that they have not more but the same or less than their inferiors;
pretensions which may and may not be just. Inferiors revolt in order that they
may be equal, and equals that they may be superior. Such is the state of mind
which creates revolutions”.

§
We have next to consider what means there are of
preserving constitutions in general, and in particular cases. In the first
place it is evident that if we know the causes which destroy constitutions, we
also know the causes which preserve them; for opposites produce opposites, and
destruction is the opposite of preservation. In all well-attempered governments
there is nothing which should be more jealously maintained than the spirit of obedience to law, more especially in small matters; for
transgression creeps in unperceived and at last ruins the state, just as the
constant recurrence of small expenses in time eats up a fortune. – that’s how
corruption proceeds.

§
But above all every state should be so
administered and so regulated by law that its magistrates cannot possibly make money. In oligarchies special
precautions should be used against this evil. For the people do not take any
great offense at being kept out of the government — indeed they are rather
pleased than otherwise at having leisure for their private business — but what
irritates them is to think that their rulers are stealing the public money;
then they are doubly annoyed

§
of all the things which I have mentioned that
which most contributes to the permanence of constitutions is the adaptation of
education to the form of government, and yet in our own day this principle is
universally neglected. The best laws, though sanctioned by every citizen of the
state, will be of no avail unless the young are trained by habit and education
in the spirit of the constitution

Book VII

§
each one has just so much of happiness as he has
of virtue and wisdom, and of virtuous and wise action

§
Let us assume then that the best life, both for
individuals and states, is the life of virtue, when virtue has external goods
enough for the performance of good actions.

Book VIII

§
The customary branches of education are in
number four; they are —(1) reading and writing, (2) gymnastic exercises, (3)
music, to which is sometimes added (4) drawing.