Aristotle’s Philosophy: Ethics, Politics, and the Hellenistic Period
Context: Aristotle and the Hellenistic Period
After the Peloponnesian War, Athens suffered a setback. This marked a clear decline in the polls, alongside a deep economic crisis. This context led to the emergence of a new political-military imperialism. Macedonia, a kingdom that had maintained a feudal type of social organization and a strong warrior class, served the king to initiate a process of unification and expansion. This culminated when Philip II was appointed head of the Hellenic League. A year later, Philip was assassinated. He was succeeded by his son, Alexander. After seizing power in the league, Alexander was appointed general and formed a large army to defeat the Persians and create a mighty empire. He died while preparing to continue his conquests to the West. After his death, the empire was divided, giving birth to the Hellenistic period.
Alexander the Great played a significant role. Educated by Aristotle, he promoted Greek values throughout the empire. He encouraged the development of cultural and educational centers, such as the Library of Alexandria.
- In mathematics, Euclid and Archimedes were notable figures.
- Astronomy featured Aristarchus of Samos (heliocentric theory) and Hipparchus (trigonometry).
- In literature, scholarly and courtesan poetry, and the new comedy, flourished.
- Art gained great prominence in Alexandria and Pergamum.
- In architecture, there was a development of town planning and monumental construction.
Philosophical activity was dominated by Plato and Aristotle. For the Stoics, the end of man is happiness, achievable only through self-control and equanimity. Epicureanism argued that the good that men should aim for is pleasure. According to Skepticism, it is impossible to achieve true knowledge of reality; everything is apparent and relative.
Critique of Plato’s Theory of Ideas
Plato’s Theory of Ideas was based on the Socratic effort to identify and define the essence of things. Once an essence is defined, we obtain its general concept or universal. Aristotle argued that if ideas are the essences of things and exist separately, then they are substances (realities that have independent existence).
- To explain one world, Plato creates a second, which then also needs explaining.
- The world of ideas cannot explain anything about the world of things. If the essences are separated from things, they cannot be their essence.
- Ideas cannot explain the origin, evolution, and changes of things. Ideas are “causes” of things, but not productive or motor causes. Plato had to introduce the Demiurge.
- Mathematization of the Theory of Ideas.
Aristotle’s criticism focuses on rejecting that the essence of things exists apart from them. However, he does not reject the theory in its entirety, only its separate existence.
Aristotle’s Ethics: The Pursuit of Happiness
Ethics is devoted to studying the rational justification of moral norms that govern human behavior. It is also a virtue ethics, the means to happiness.
Happiness: There are often many disputes when discussing happiness and the highest good. Some value most the active political life, whose highest good should be glory and virtue. Others prefer the contemplative life of the philosopher and the quest for wisdom. Still others prefer the pleasant life, the pursuit of pleasure as the highest good. Aristotle rejected that the good might be the ideal because there are many different types of goods.
- Happiness does not need any external good. It is the perfect exercise of the activity of the human being.
- Happiness is essentially uniting virtue, contemplation, and external goods wisely. Any action leading to the human end will be good, and any action that obstructs or opposes it will be bad.
Virtue: A disposition of the soul, a permanent capacity, and fitness to behave in a certain way. It has nothing to do with knowledge. Behavior is only fair or good if the individual acts knowingly and with a conscious decision to undertake action on their own.
- Virtue includes knowledge, strong will, and a reflexive choice of means to carry out an action.
- It is acquired through practice and habit. Aristotle denies that we are virtuous by nature or by training.
- Virtue is the way of being of a person, expressed through their actions. When it becomes a habit, virtue is expressed as a person in relation to the reality that surrounds them.
- Virtue is a middle ground, a balance between two equally vicious extremes. In relation to the good and perfection, virtue is at the highest point. That average cannot be established in the abstract or general. The wise and prudent person will know how to choose the right balance.
- Moral virtues arise in us from habit. Man is potentially capable of forming them, and through exercise, this potential becomes actuality.
- Intellectual virtues involve the cultivation of all personal qualities.
Aristotle’s Political Philosophy
Ethics and politics are concerned with determining the good of mankind. Although “it is certainly desirable when a single individual interests, it is endowed with a more beautiful and more divine character when it is in the interest of a people and an entire state,” no one can be virtuous if they are not part of a polis.
Social Organicism: The state is prior to the family and each individual. The whole is prior to each of the parts. If every individual is not self-sufficient, it is because they should be placed in society. Thanks to language, a human being can communicate with their peers.
Origin of the State: The individual generates the family, which is installed in a house, and then comes the tribe, the village, and eventually the city, the polis or state. Language and words are the signs that allow communication with peers. This explains the social nature of humans.
Priority of the State
Only the State can rely on itself, unlike the individual and the family. This is fundamentally ethical and human self-sufficiency. Political activity is meaningless if it is not governed by ethics, by virtue. The state appears for the sake of living well, in a moral sense, so that all individuals reach happiness.
Theory of Politics
Aristotle understood politics as an empirical science, but not an exact one. He always maintained the ideal of the small city-state. His preferences were monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, with their respective degenerations into tyranny, oligarchy, and demagoguery. In the first three, the best and most virtuous govern. Aristotle showed no preference for any type of government, however, he stated that it was best to rely on the middle class.
Social Groups
Only free citizens can achieve happiness. Equality and happiness are not available to slaves and women.