V. 1. Science.

This book is the first collection of essays in English devoted solely to the relationship between Aristotle’s ethics and politics. Are ethics and politics two separate spheres of action or are they unified? Those who support the unity-thesis emphasize the centrality for Aristotle of questions about the good life and the common good as the purpose of politics. Those who defend the separation-thesis stress Aristotle’s sense of realism in understanding the need for political solutions to human shortcomings. But is this all there is to it? The contributors to this volume explore and develop different arguments and interpretative frameworks that help to make sense of the relationship between Aristotle’s Ethics and Politics. The chapters loosely follow the order of the Nicomachean Ethics in examining topics such as political science, statesmanship and magnanimity, justice, practical wisdom, friendship, and the relationship between the active and the contemplative life. They have in common an appreciation of the relevance of Aristotle’s writings, which offer the modern reader distinct philosophical perspectives on the relationship between ethics and politics.

Offering fresh interpretations of Aristotle's key work, this collection opens new paths for students and scholars to explore.

European and North American scholars explore the political philosophy of Aristotle, with particular attention to questions arising from the Politics and the Nicomachean Ethics.

A collection of articles on Plato's Republic and Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics and Politics. The newly written introductory chapter offers a sketch of the metaphysical foundations of Plato's and Aristotle's ethical and political philosophy. Two chapters on the Republic examine Plato's account of justice and his use of the ship of state metaphor. The remainder of the book is devoted to Aristotle and discusses such topics as his view of the best life for a man, his political naturalism, his proto-anarchism, his theory of distributive justice, and his ideal polis. The final chapters, also newly written, address the unattractive features of Aristotle's political ideal-natural slavery, the subordination of women, and the denigration of technical skill-and argue that these feature are in fact inconsistent with the basic principles of his ethical and political philosophy. The volume ends with a defense of the claim that Aristotle's political philosophy, once shorn of its excrescences, is updateable to the twenty-first century.

According to Aristotle, man's essential sociality implies a distinctive conception of politics, one in which all political associations exist for the sake of the moral perfection of human beings. This stands in sharp contrast with the modern view of politics that man is not "by nature" political; rather, man chooses to create political associations for the sake of securing the protection of his life and property. Many political theorists have begun to express doubts about this modern view, calling for a return to Aristotle's vision of a politics that is deeply moral. In Aristotle's Politics Today, distinguished political philosophers representing a diversity of approaches examine the meaning, relevance, and implications of Aristotle's political thought for contemporary social and political theory. The contributors engage a broad range of topics, including Aristotle's views on constitutionalism, the extension of Aristotelian ideas to issues in international relations, the place of Aristotelian virtue in modern democratic politics, and Aristotle's conception of justice.