Ancient Philosophy · Part 16 · Athens · B2–C1
Aristotle II: Ethics and Politics
Part 16 of Ancient Philosophy: Aristotle asked what makes a human life go well, and answered: virtue, which lies between too much and too little, and is learned by practice. He studied 158 constitutions to find the best way to live together, and argued that some people are slaves by nature. Too and enough (too much, not enough, excessive, deficient), with Philo, Sophia, Marcos and Demetria.
Tonight, Aristotle on how to live well, and how to live together.
Not too much, not too little. And then some very hard things about who counts as a full human being.
His ethics I admire. His politics I have argued about with every Greek I know.
Aristotle’s ethics survive in lecture notes, the most famous of which is the Nicomachean Ethics, named after his son or his father, Nicomachus. It asks what the highest good for a human being is, and answers: eudaimonia, usually translated “happiness”, but meaning a whole life of flourishing, lived according to virtue and reason.
His Politics studies the city-state: how it arises, what kinds of constitution exist, and which is best. With his pupils, he collected the constitutions of 158 Greek cities. Only one survives: the Constitution of the Athenians. Things to come: it will be found in the 19th century on papyrus rolls from Egypt, written on the back of farm accounts.
Aristotle’s politics also contain his defence of slavery as natural for some people, and his view that women are naturally ruled by men. These ideas were quoted for centuries to justify both.
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