Aristotle differ correct and incorrect forms of the state: in the correct forms, the rulers have in mind the common good, in the wrong ones - only their own personal benefit.
The three correct forms of the state are monarchical rule (royal power), aristocracy and polity, and the corresponding erroneous deviations from them are tyranny, oligarchy and democracy.
Each form has, in turn, several types, since various combinations of forming elements are possible. Aristotle calls the most correct form of the state polity. In the polity, the majority governs in the interests of the common good. All other forms represent one or another deviation from the polity. On the other hand, the polity itself, according to Aristotle, is, as it were, mixture of oligarchy and democracy. This element of polity (combining the interests of the prosperous and the poor, wealth and freedom) exists in most states, that is, is generally characteristic of the state as a political community. Of the wrong forms of the state, tyranny is the worst.
Sharply criticizing extreme democracy, where the supreme power belongs to the demos, and not to the law, Aristotle approvingly characterizes a moderate census democracy based on the reconciliation of rich and poor and the rule of law.
The polity combines the best sides oligarchies and democracies, but free from their shortcomings and extremes. Politia - "medium" form state, and the "middle" element in it dominates everything: in morals - moderation, in property - average prosperity, in ruling - the middle stratum.
The main reason for the disturbance and coups in the state Aristotle sees in the lack of proper equality. Coups turn out to be the result of a violation of the relative nature of equality and a distortion of the principle of political justice, requiring in some cases to be guided by quantitative equality, in others - equality in dignity. Thus, democracy is based on the principle that relative equality entails absolute equality, while oligarchy proceeds from the principle that relative inequality also causes absolute inequality.
Such an error in the initial principles of state forms leads in the future to civil strife and rebellions.
AND ideal project of the best state Aristotle notes that this is a logical construction and one cannot seek here the same accuracy that we have the right to impose on observations of facts accessible to research through experience.
The population of the best state should be sufficient and easily visible. The territory of the best state should be equally well oriented in relation to the sea and the mainland. The territory, in addition, should be sufficient to meet moderate needs.
In connection with the coverage of the topic wars Aristotle dwells on the problem slavery. Military affairs, he emphasizes, are necessary not for the enslavement of other peoples, but first of all in order not to fall into slavery ourselves. Although slaves are everywhere acquired by war, yet slavery rests not on the right of war, but in the nature of things. War and violence in general, thus, without creating a new legal basis for slavery, are, according to Aristotle, only a means of acquiring those who are already slaves.
In general, Aristotle calls law as a political phenomenon “political law”. This, in particular, means the impossibility of non-political law, the absence of law in general in non-political (despotic) forms of government.
Political law it is divided into natural and conditional (volitional). Political law is part natural, part conditional. natural law- that which is everywhere same value and does not depend on recognition or non-recognition of it. Conditional right - originally it could be one way or another without significant difference, but once it is defined (this indifference ceases).
In the teachings of Aristotle, both natural and conditional (volitional) law, although they differ from each other, both belong to the sphere of political phenomena and are political in nature. The peculiarity of Aristotle's position is due to the fundamental circumstance that by "nature" he means precisely the political nature of man in the question of law: after all, man, according to Aristotle, is by nature a political being.
Under the conditional (volitional) right in the concept of Aristotle is meant everything that in subsequent word usage began to be designated as a positive (positive) right. By conditional law, he refers to the establishment of the law and universal agreements.
An essential component of the political quality of the law is its compliance with political justice and law. Therefore, this right must find its expression, embodiment and observance in the law. The retreat of law from law would mean, according to the concept of Aristotle, a departure from political forms to despotic violence, the degeneration of law into a means of despotism.
Political government is, according to Aristotle, rule of law, and not of people: rulers, even the best, are subject to feelings and affects, while the law is "balanced mind"
Keywords
ARISTOTLE / POLITIA / FORM OF THE STATE/ LAW / ARISTOTLE / POLITIA / FORM OF GOVERNMENT / LAWannotation scientific article on philosophy, ethics, religious studies, author of scientific work - Belyaeva O. M.
The purpose of the state, according to Aristotle, is the common good, the achievement of happiness by every citizen. At the same time, the policy is considered as a political communication of free and equal people. The most correct form of government is polity, in which the middle class dominates everything.
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In this article there is an analysis of Aristotle's views on the best government system. Some attention is paid to criticism at Plato's project of an ideal state (Plato was Aristotle's teacher). Also, in the article there is an analysis of this thinker’s statements on the right and wrong government systems; we also elicit any state's aim and nature, politics' tasks; in the article we describe the philosopher's views on the slaveholding system and private ownership. Aristotle’s political and legal views found their reflection in his works: “Athenian politia”, “Nickomakhov’s ethics”, “Politics”. In Aristotle's judgment, the aim of state is common good and happiness of its every citizen. At the same time, city-state (polis) is considered as a political communication of free and equal people. The most correct form of government is politia where the middle class of people predominates in all spheres, to be precise, the middle class as the majority rules in the interests of common good. Politia is a specific kind of confusion of oligarchy and democracy deprived of extremes and disadvantages. Aristotle was one of the supporters of the organic theory of state's origin; he pointed out that state was the product of natural development that was conditional on the nature of a man himself: “The man is a political and social being”. The state itself is the end of the genesis of the man's political nature. Aristotle criticizes Plato’s project of an ideal state (“Plato is my friend, but I appreciate truth more”) because of his attempt to make a state “excessively united”. So, community of ownership, wives and children proposed by Plato will result, in the last analysis, in degeneration of the state itself, the philosopher thought. Plato was against private ownership, but Aristotle advocated the maintenance of ownership; he pointed out that “private ownership is rooted in the human nature, in the man’s love to himself”. So far as Aristotle was an aristocrat, he had rather determined views on the slavery as well. Slavery was ethically justified; the relations between master and slave had a family nature. Moreover, the notion of a citizen itself is formed by the philosopher from the person’s ability to participate in the legislative and judicial activities of the state. Aristotle was one of the most universal philosophers in the history of mankind. The appearance of metaphysics as a method of cognition and the tradition of Athenian school – a lyceum – are connected exactly with his name nowadays. Really, in Aristotle’s works there is an interpretational synthesis of all the ancient theories that is of especially great interest in our time. As never before the critics of democracy is actual now (in Aristotle’s view, it is one of the worst government systems along with tyranny), in the period of global crisis and fall of universal values. Thanks to his incontestable authority, Aristotle’s views became starting points for the whole political and legal thought not only on the West, but on the East too, right up to the beginning of the 18th century.
The text of the scientific work on the topic "Politics as the best form of government, according to Aristotle"
BULLETIN OF THE PERM UNIVERSITY
Legal Sciences
Issue 1(19)
POLITIA AS THE BEST FORM OF GOVERNMENT, ACCORDING TO ARISTOTLE
O.M. Belyaeva
PhD in Law, Associate Professor, Associate Professor of the Department of Theory and History of State and Law Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University 420008, Republic of Tatarstan, Kazan, st. Kremlin, 18 [email protected]
The goal of the state, according to Aristotle, is the common good, the achievement of happiness by every citizen. At the same time, the policy is considered as a political communication of free and equal people. The most correct form of government is a polity in which the middle class dominates everything.
Keywords: Aristotle; polity; the form of the state; right
Aristotle (384-322 BC) - the greatest ancient Greek thinker-encyclopedist, student of Plato, educator of Alexander the Great, founder of the Lyceum (in another transcription - the Lyceum, or the peripatetic school), the founder of formal logic. It was Aristotle who created the conceptual apparatus that still permeates the philosophical lexicon and the style itself. scientific thinking. For about 20 years, Aristotle studied at the Academy of Plato, and then largely departed from the views of the teacher, declaring: "Plato is my friend, but the truth should be preferred." The birthplace of Aristotle is the Greek city-polis of Stageira in Thrace, therefore Aristotle is sometimes called Stagirite. The scientific history of Aristotle is truly outstanding, he remains, perhaps, the most relevant and widely read author for many hundreds of years.
Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970), president of France, general, wrote at one time: "... at the basis of the victories of Alexander the Great, we always, in the end, find Aristotle." The authority of Aristotle was so great that before the beginning of modern times, Aristotle's works were referred to as something unshakable and beyond any doubt. So, when a certain Jesuit professor (XVIII century) was asked to look through a telescope and make sure that there were spots on the Sun, he answered the astronomer
© Belyaeva O.M., 2013
Kircher: "It's useless, my son. I have read Aristotle twice from beginning to end, and I have not found in him any hint of sunspots. And therefore, there are no such spots.
Among the works of Aristotle, which make up the so-called "Aristotelian Corpus", the following cycles should be distinguished:
Logic (Organon): "Categories", "On Interpretation", "First Analytics", "Second Analytics", etc.;
About nature: "Physics", "On the soul", "On memory and recollection", etc.;
Metaphysics: "Metaphysics";
Ethics and politics: "Nicomachean ethics", "Politics", "Athenian polity" and others;
Rhetoric: "Rhetoric", etc.
So, when writing the "Politics" (c. 329 BC), Aristotle did a gigantic job, having studied with his students the constitutions of 158 Greek policies (!). Aristotle's work was based on a comparison and analysis of the current basic laws of city-states available to him. Until that time, this kind of attempt to compare legislation was not only not undertaken, but simply did not occur to anyone. Thus, Aristotle laid the foundations for the future methodology of political science.
About the state
Since the beginning of politics in Aristotle is ethics, therefore the objects
political science are fine and fair.
Aristotle considers the state a political organization of society, a product of natural development and at the same time the highest form of communication, and a person, accordingly, a political being. “The state,” he convinces, “belongs to that which exists by nature ... and a person by nature is a political being, and one who, by virtue of his nature, and not due to accidental circumstances, lives outside the state, is either underdeveloped in in the moral sense, a being, or a superman ... such a person, by his nature, only craves war.
In all people, nature introduced the desire for state communication, and the first person who organized this communication did the greatest good to man. Human,
who has found its completion is the most perfect of living beings and, conversely, a person who lives outside the law and rights is the worst of all.
“Since every state is a kind of communion, and every communion is organized for the sake of some good, then, obviously, all communions strive for one or another good, and more than others, and for the highest of all good, that communion, which is the most important out of all and embraces all other communications. This communication is called the state or political communication.
Politics is a science, knowledge of how best to organize the joint life of people in a state. A politician must take into account that people have not only virtues, but also vices. Therefore, the task of politics is not the education of morally perfect people, but the education of virtues in citizens. The virtue of a citizen consists in the ability to fulfill his civic duty and in the ability to obey the authorities and laws. Therefore, the politician must look for the best, i.e. most corresponding to the specified purpose, the state structure.
Aristotle criticizes the communist project of the ideal state of Plato, in particular for his hypothetical
skoe "monolithic" unity. In contrast to Plato, Aristotle argues that the community of ownership established in the commune does not at all destroy the basis of social schism, but, on the contrary, strengthens it many times over. Naturally, the selfishness inherent in man, caring for the family, caring about one's own rather than the common is the objective reality of state life. The communist, utopian project of Plato, which denies the family and private property, deprives the political activity of the individual of the necessary impetus.
And the community of property, wives and children proposed by Plato will lead to the destruction of the state. Aristotle was a staunch defender of the rights of the individual, private property and the monogamous family, as well as a supporter of slavery.
Being an adherent of the slave system, Aristotle closely connected slavery with the issue of property: in the very essence of things, an order is rooted, by virtue of which, from the moment of birth, some creatures are destined for submission, while others for domination. This is the general law of nature, and animated beings are also subject to it. According to Aristotle, “who by nature does not belong to himself, but to another, and at the same time is still a man, is by nature a slave. A person belongs to another if, while remaining a person, he becomes property; the latter is an active and separate tool. At the same time, slavery in Aristotle is ethically justified, because the slave is devoid of virtue. At the same time, the relationship between master and slave is, according to Aristotle, an element of the family, not the state.
The purpose of the state, according to Aristotle, is the common good, therefore, participation in the management of state affairs should be common. “The goal of human community is not just to live, but much more to live happily.” In other words, the goal of the state is to achieve happiness for every citizen. At the same time, the policy is considered as a political communication of free and equal people.
Aristotle continues Plato's teaching about the state as an association of people for mutual assistance and cooperation, politics as the art of providing people with the highest justice, and about law as its most complete and perfect expression. Law represents political justice. Therefore, the primary task of law is the protection of life, property of each person. The law must correspond, according to Aristotle, to political justice and law. Right
This is the measure of justice, the regulating norm of political communication. Society cannot exist without laws and law: "a person who lives outside law and law is the worst of all." Aristotle justifies legal coercion: “Most people obey necessity rather than reason, and fear punishment more than honor.”
If Plato is a radical, uncompromising thinker, loves extremes, in his writings - a flight of fancy, courage, refined style, then Aristotle is an opponent of all extremes, a supporter of the middle in everything, his rule is the thoroughness and validity of research in any field.
“In every state there are three components: very wealthy,
the extremely poor and the third, standing in the middle between the one and the other. Since, according to the generally accepted opinion, moderation and the middle are the best, it is obvious that the average prosperity is the best of all goods. With it, it is easiest to obey the arguments of reason; on the contrary, it is difficult to follow these arguments for a person who is super-beautiful, super-strong, super-noble, super-rich, or, conversely, a person who is super-poor, super-weak, super-low in his social position. People of the first type become mostly insolent and big scoundrels. People of the second type often become villains and petty scoundrels. And of the crimes, some are committed because of arrogance, others because of meanness.
Thus, some are not able to rule and are able to obey only the power that appears in the masters over
slaves; others are not capable of submitting to any authority, and they know how to rule only in the way that masters rule over slaves.
It is clear, therefore, that the best state communication is that which is achieved by means of averages, and those states have a good order, where the averages are represented in greater numbers, where they are - at best - stronger than both extremes, or, in any case, each of them in separately. Connected to one or the other extreme, they provide balance and prevent the preponderance of opponents. Therefore, the greatest welfare for the state is that its citizens should have an average but sufficient property, and in cases where some own too much, while others have nothing, either an extreme democracy or an oligarchy in pure form or tyranny, precisely under the influence of opposite extremes. After all, tyranny is formed both from an extremely loose democracy and from an oligarchy, much less often from average types of political system and those who are related to them.
About the form of the state
The form of the state in the teachings of Aristotle is given decisive importance. It includes the form of the state system, the type of state government, depending on the specific conditions of a particular country or people. Those forms (monarchy, aristocracy, polity) in which the rulers have in mind the common good are correct. Those (tyranny, oligarchy, democracy) who have in mind only the good of the rulers are wrong.
The "correctness" of Aristotle's system does not depend at all on the number of rulers. And this is another feature of the thinker's teaching.
The most correct form is polity, in which the majority governs in the interests of the common good. Politia is a constitutional moderate-democratic republic whose leaders are able to combine freedom with order, courage with wisdom. Politia is a mixed form of state government, arising from a combination of two irregular forms: oligarchs
hi and democracy. So, the principle of creating an ideal form of government is a mixture of two irregular forms. Aristotle described polity as follows: it "is found extremely rarely and in a few." In particular, discussing the possibility of establishing a polity in contemporary Greece, Aristotle came to the conclusion that such a possibility was not great. In the polity, the majority governs in the interests of the common good. Politia is the "middle" form of the state, and the "middle" element here dominates everything: in morals - moderation, in property - average prosperity, in ruling - the middle layer. “Only where, in the composition of the population, the averages have a preponderance either over both extremes, or over one of them, can the political system count on stability.” For the oligarchy exacerbates the existing inequality of property, and democracy excessively equalizes the rich and the poor.
“Deviation from monarchy gives tyranny, deviation from aristocracy - oligarchy, deviation from polity - democracy, deviation from democracy - ochlocracy,” wrote Aristotle.
About rhetoric
Plato did not highly appreciate rhetoric: “untrue art”, “juggling with words”; Aristotle, on the other hand, dedicates a whole work to her, of the same name, where he discusses in detail the content of a publicly delivered speech, the style, and manner of the speaker's speech. He believes that it is necessary to teach oratory, because this is, in his opinion, part of civic education. Politics can become the property of all citizens largely due to oratorical eloquence. honed oratory should be placed at the service of educating political culture, law-abiding behavior, and a high level of legal awareness.
Aristotle changed the style of presenting political and legal ideas - Aristotle's scientific treatise replaced Plato's dialogues. It is from Aristotle that the teaching of state studies originates. Aristotle is the founder of political science and the main developer of its methodology.
It so happened that not all of Aristotle's works have come down to us. Moreover, some
some of the works were not published by him during his lifetime, and many others were falsely attributed to him later. But even some passages of those writings that undoubtedly belong to him can be called into question, and even the ancients tried to explain this incompleteness and fragmentation to themselves by the vicissitudes of the fate of Aristotle's manuscripts. According to the tradition preserved by Strabo and Plutarch, Aristotle bequeathed his writings to Theophrastus, from whom they passed to Nelius of Skepsis. The heirs of Nelius hid the precious manuscripts from the greed of the Pergamon kings in a cellar, where they suffered greatly from dampness and mold. In the 1st century BC e. they were sold at a high price to the rich and bookish Apellicon in the most miserable condition, and he tried to restore the damaged parts of the manuscripts with his own additions, but not always successfully. Subsequently, under Sulla, they came to Rome among other booty, where Tyrannian and Andronicus of Rhodes published them in their modern form. According to some scholars, this account can only be true with respect to a very small number of minor writings by Aristotle. At the same time, it remains only to build versions of what could be contained in the lost part of Aristotle's manuscripts.
Bibliographic list
1. History of the state legal teachings/ resp. ed. V.V. Lazarev. M.: Spark, 2006. 672 p.
2. Marchenko M.N., Machin I.F. History of political and legal doctrines. M.: Higher education, 2005. 495 p.
3. Machin I.F. History of political and legal doctrines. M.: Higher education, Yurayt-Izdat, 2009. 412 p.
4. Mukhaev R.T. History of political and
legal teachings. M.: Prior-izdat,
5. Thinkers of Greece. From myth to logic: works / comp. V.V. Skoda. M.: Eksmo-Press Publishing House; Kharkov: Folio Publishing House, 1998. 832 p.
7. Taranov P.S. Philosophy of forty-five generations. M.: Izd-vo AST, 1998. 656 p.
8. Electronic resource: http://ru.wikipedia. org/wiki/%C0%F0%E8%F 1%F2%EE%F2 %E5%EB%FC (accessed:
Bibliograficheskij spisok
1. Istorija gosudarstvenno-pravovyh uchenij / otv. red. V.V. Lazarev. M.: Spark, 2006. 672 s.
2. Marchenko M.N., Machin I.F. Historija politicheskih i pravovyh uchenij. M.: Vysshee obrazovanie, 2005. 495 s.
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pravovyh uchenij. M.: Vysshee obra-
zovanie, Jurajt-Izdat, 2009. 412 s.
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5. Mysliteli Grecii. From mifa k logike: so-chinenija / sost. V.V. shkoda. M.: Izd-vo Jeksmo-Press; Har "kov: Izd-vo Folio, 1998. 832 s.
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org/wiki/%C0%F0%E8%F 1%F2%EE%F2 %E5%EB%FC (data obrashhenija:
POLITIA AS THE BEST FORM OF GOVERNMENT IN ARISTOTLE'S JUDGMENT
Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University 18, Kremlyovskaya st., Kazan, 420008 E-mail: [email protected]
In this article there is an analysis of Aristotle's views on the best government system. Some attention is paid to criticism at Plato's project of an ideal state (Plato was Aristotle's teacher). Also, in the article there is an analysis of this thinker’s statements on the right and wrong government systems; we also elicit any state's aim and nature, politics' tasks; in the article we describe the philosopher's views on the slaveholding system and private ownership.
Aristotle’s political and legal views found their reflection in his works: “Athenian politia”, “Nickomakhov’s ethics”, “Politics”. In Aristotle's judgment, the aim of state is common good and happiness of its every citizen. At the same time, city-state (polis) is considered as a political communication of free and equal people. The most correct form of government is politia where the middle class of people predominates in all spheres, to be precise, the middle class as the majority rules in the interests of common good. Politia is a specific kind of confusion of oligarchy and democracy deprived of extremes and disadvantages.
Aristotle was one of the supporters of the organic theory of state's origin; he pointed out that state was the product of natural development that was conditional on the nature of a man himself: “The man is a political and social being”. The state itself is the end of the genesis of the man's political nature.
Aristotle criticizes Plato’s project of an ideal state (“Plato is my friend, but I appreciate truth more”) because of his attempt to make a state “excessively united”. So, community of ownership, wives and children proposed by Plato will result, in the last analysis, in degeneration of the state itself, the philosopher thought.
Plato was against private ownership, but Aristotle advocated the maintenance of ownership; he pointed out that “private ownership is rooted in the human nature, in the man’s love to himself.” So far as Aristotle was an aristocrat, he had rather determined views on the slavery as well. Slavery was ethically justified; the relations between master and slave had a family nature. Moreover, the notion of a citizen itself is formed by the philosopher from the person’s ability to participate in the legislative and judicial activities of the state.
Aristotle was one of the most universal philosophers in the history of mankind. The appearance of metaphysics as a method of cognition and the tradition of Athenian school - a lyceum - are connected exactly with his name nowadays. Really, in Aristotle’s works there is an interpretational synthesis of all the ancient theories that is of especially great interest in our time. As never before the critics of democracy is actual now (in Aristotle’s view, it is one of the worst government systems along with tyranny), in the period of global crisis and fall of universal values.
Thanks to his incontestable authority, Aristotle’s views became starting points for the whole political and legal thought not only on the West, but on the East too, right up to the beginning of the 18th century.
Keywords: Aristotle; politia; form of government; law
Separates "bad" forms of the state (tyranny, extreme oligarchy and ochlocracy) and "good" ones (monarchy, aristocracy and polity).
The best form of state, according to Aristotle, is polity - a combination of moderate oligarchy and moderate democracy, the state of the "middle class" (Aristotle's ideal).
According to Aristotle, the state arises naturally to meet the needs of life, and the purpose of its existence is to achieve the good of people. The state acts as the highest form of communication between people, thanks to which all other forms of human relations reach perfection and completion.
The natural origin of the state is explained by the fact that nature instilled in all people the desire for state communication, and the first person who organized this communication provided humanity with the greatest benefit. Finding out the essence of man, the patterns of his formation.
Aristotle believes that a person, by nature, is a political being and his completion, one might say, he receives perfection in the state. Nature has endowed man with intellectual and moral strength, which he can use both for good and for evil.
If a person has moral principles, then he can achieve perfection. A person deprived of moral principles turns out to be the most impious and wild being, vile in his sexual and taste instincts. Concerning the correlation and subordination of the triad: state, family, individual, Aristotle believes that “the state by its nature precedes the individual”, that the nature of the state is ahead of the nature of the family and the individual, and therefore “it is necessary that the whole precede the part”.
The state, and in this Aristotle follows Plato, is a kind of unity of its constituent elements, though not as centralized as Plato's. Aristotle characterizes the form of government as a political system, personified by the supreme power in the state. Depending on the number of those in power (one, few, majority), the form of the state is determined. There are both right and wrong forms of government. The criterion for correct forms of government is their service to the common state interests, for incorrect ones - the desire for personal good, profit.
The three correct forms of the state are monarchical rule (royal power), aristocracy and politics (politics is the rule of the majority, combining the best aspects of aristocracy and democracy). Erroneous, wrong - tyranny, oligarchy, democracy. In turn, each form has several varieties. Aristotle sees the main reason for the indignation of people, sometimes leading to a change in forms of government, including as a result of coup d'état, in the absence of equality in the state.
It is for the sake of achieving equality that coups and uprisings are carried out. On the issue of land, Aristotle believes that there should be two forms of land ownership: one involves the general use of land by the state, the other is private ownership by citizens who must, on a friendly basis, provide the grown products for the common use of other citizens.
Legislation in the state is an integral part of politics. Legislators must always take this into account in order to skillfully and adequately reflect in the laws the uniqueness of a given state system and thereby contribute to the preservation and strengthening of the existing system of relations.
The historical significance of Aristotle's philosophy is that he:
He made significant adjustments to a number of provisions of Plato's philosophy, criticizing the doctrine of "pure ideas";
Dal materialistic interpretation the origin of the world and man;
He singled out 10 philosophical categories;
He gave the definition of being through categories;
Determined the essence of matter;
He singled out six types of state and gave the concept of an ideal type - polity;
In area social philosophy Aristotle also put forward deep ideas, which gives reason to consider him as a thinker who stood at the origins of our modern ideas about society, the state, the family, man, law, equality. Aristotle explains the origin of social life, the formation of the state not by divine, but by earthly reasons.
Unlike Plato, who considered only ideas as everything that exists, Aristotle interprets the ratio in being of the general and the individual, the real and the logical from other positions. He does not oppose or separate them, as Plato did, but unites them. Essence, as well as that whose essence it is, cannot, according to Aristotle, exist separately.
The essence is in the subject itself, and not outside it, and they form a single whole. Aristotle begins his teaching by clarifying what science or sciences should study being. Such a science, which, abstracting from the individual properties of being (for example, quantity, movement), could cognize the essence of being, is philosophy. Unlike other sciences that study various aspects, properties of being, philosophy studies what determines the essence of being.
Essence, according to Aristotle, is what underlies: in one sense it is matter, in another sense it is concept and form, and in the third place it is that which consists of matter and form. At the same time, matter is understood as something indefinite, which “in itself is not designated either as determined in essence, or as determined in quantity, or as possessing any of the other properties that are definitely beings.” According to Aristotle, matter takes on definiteness only with the help of form. Without a form, matter appears only as a possibility, and only by acquiring a form does it turn into reality.
Essence- the cause of not only the real, but also the future being.
Within this paradigm, Aristotle defines four causes that determine being:
1. Essence and essence of being, thanks to which a thing is what it is;
2. Matter and substratum is that from which everything arises;
3. Motive cause, signifying the principle of motion;
4. Achievement of the set goal and benefit as a natural result of activity.
Aristotle's ideas about knowledge are essentially intertwined with his logical doctrine and dialectics and supplemented by them. In the field of cognition, Aristotle not only recognized the importance of dialogue, dispute, discussion in reaching the truth, but also put forward new principles and ideas about cognition and, in particular, the doctrine of plausible and probabilistic or dialectical knowledge, leading to reliable knowledge, or apodictic. According to Aristotle, probabilistic and plausible knowledge is available to dialectics, and true knowledge, built on necessarily true positions, is inherent only in apodictic knowledge.
Of course, "apodictic" and "dialectical" are not opposed to each other, they are interconnected. Dialectical knowledge, based on sensory perception, proceeding from experience and moving in the area of incompatible opposites, gives only probabilistic knowledge, i.e., a more or less plausible opinion about the subject of research. To give this knowledge a greater degree of reliability, it is necessary to compare different opinions, judgments that exist or are put forward to reveal the essence of a cognizable phenomenon. However, despite all these techniques, it is impossible to obtain reliable knowledge in this way.
True knowledge, according to Aristotle, is not achieved through sensory perception or through experience, but through the activity of the mind, which has the necessary abilities to achieve truth.
These qualities of the mind are inherent in man not from birth. They exist potentially. In order for these abilities to manifest, it is necessary to purposefully collect facts, concentrate the mind on the study of the essence of these facts, and only then will true knowledge become possible.
Since from the ability to think, possessing which, we learn the truth, - Aristotle believes - some always comprehend the truth, while others also lead to errors (for example, opinion and reasoning), while science and the mind always give the truth, then no other kind (knowledge) ), other than the mind, is no more accurate than science. Aristotle's theory of knowledge closely adjoins his logic. Although Aristotle's logic is formal in content, it is multidisciplinary, as it includes the doctrine of being and the doctrine of truth and knowledge.
The search for truth is carried out through syllogisms (inference) using induction and deduction. An essential element of the search for truth are the ten categories of Aristotle (essence, quantity, quality, relation, place, time, position, state, action, suffering), which he considers as closely interconnected with each other, mobile and fluid.
Here is one example showing how truth can be known through logical analysis. From two syllogisms: “all men are mortal” and “Socrates is a man”, we can conclude that “Socrates is mortal”. It is impossible not to note the contribution of Aristotle to the classification of sciences. Before Aristotle, although there were already various sciences, they were scattered, distant from each other, their direction was not defined.
Naturally, this created certain difficulties in their study, and in determining their subject, and in the field of application. Aristotle was the first to carry out, as it were, an inventory of the existing sciences and determine their direction. He divided the existing sciences into three groups: theoretical, which included physics, mathematics and philosophy; practical or normative, in which policy is one of the most important; poetic sciences that regulate the production of various objects.
He made a significant contribution to the development of logic (he gave the concept of the deductive method - from the particular to the general, substantiated the system of syllogisms - the conclusion from two or more premises of the conclusion).
Classification of the forms of the state of Aristotle repeats in many respects Platonic. In search of a more perfect form, he, together with his students, analyzed many (more than one hundred and fifty) drafts and constitutions of states, considering the main causes of coup d'état. In the teachings of Aristotle, the form of the state is given decisive importance. This form includes government controlled, which depends on the specific individual conditions of a particular country, as well as peoples. Forms such as polity, aristocracy, and monarchy, in which those in power have in mind only the general good, are undoubtedly correct. While democracy, tyranny and oligarchy represent the achievement of the benefits only of the rulers and are incorrect state forms.
Aristotle considered the most correct form of polity, the form in which the majority rules the state for the sake of the common good. Politia was a constitutional-democratic republic, whose leaders set a goal and were able to combine order and freedom, wisdom with courage and other virtues.
Politia is a mixed form of government, which arises from a combination of two wrong forms at once, namely, democracy and oligarchy. So, the principle of formation of the ideal form of government is indicated - a mixture of irregular forms. Aristotle described polity in the following words: "This form is very rare and not many." So, discussing the possibility of the formation of a polity in Greece of that period, Aristotle came to the conclusion that the probability of establishing this state form is small.
For Aristotle, polity was the “middle” state form in which the dominant role was assigned to the “middle” element, that is, moderation in morals, contentment with a small wealth in property, as well as rule in the majority of the middle stratum of the population.
Comments
The development of Plato's political ideas was continued by his student, Aristotle (348–322 BC). His main political writings are "Politics" and "Athenian polity". According to Aristotle, the state is formed naturally due to the natural attraction of people to communication. The first type of communication is the family, then a village arises from several families, and finally, the union of villages creates a policy (state). “The state ... is the communication of people like each other for the sake of achieving the possible a better life» .
Aristotle gives a classification of the forms of states according to two criteria (see diagram 2.3):
1) for the purpose carried out by the ruling: correct if rulers serve the common good and wrong when rulers pursue goals of personal gain;
2) by the number of those in power: rule of one, rule of few or majority rule.
2.4. The best form of government is polity (Aristotle)
Under this form of government, the number of the middle class is greater than the number of rich and poor combined, i.e.:
or the number of the middle class is much greater than the number of the rich and much greater than the number of the poor:
Comments
Aristotle considered the best state system to be a politician), which combines the best features of an oligarchy and democracy. The social support of power in the polity is the owners of the land, the middle class. “It is better that the property be private and the use of it common.” In order for the state to be stable, the predominant class in it, Aristotle believed, there must be an average. Its number must exceed the number of rich and poor combined. As a last resort - to exceed in number any other estate, but then to exceed significantly (see diagram 2.4). At the same time, Aristotle did not provide for strict boundaries between estates or state restrictions on economic initiative.
Since all citizens participate in the government of the state, it is desirable that they know each other; this means that the territory of an ideal state, according to Aristotle, should be easily visible (as a rule, this is a city and the villages surrounding it).
The Aristotelian polity, based on broad sections of the middle class of landowners, artisans and merchants, is reminiscent of modern Western advanced democracies. The difference is that Aristotle did not see the possibility of exercising representative power, but insisted on the direct participation of the majority of citizens in government.
2.5. Circular change of forms of government according to Polybius
