Philosophy: Ancient: Politics

A touchstone in Western debates about society and government, the Politics is Aristotle's classic work on the nature of political community. Here, he argues that people band together into political communities to secure a good and self-sufficient life. He discusses the merits and defects of various regimes or ways of organizing political community--democracy in particular--and in the process examines such subjects as slavery, economics, the family, citizenship, justice, and revolution.Peter Simpson offers a new translation of Aristotle's text from the ancient Greek. He renders the Politics into an English version that is accurate, readable, and in certain difficult passages, original. His innovative analytical division of the whole text, with headings and accompanying summaries, makes clear the progression and unity of the argument--a helpful feature for students or readers unfamiliar with Aristotle's studied brevity and often elliptical style. Books 7 and 8 are repositioned--a move supported by Aristotle's own words and much scholarly opinion--to restore the work's logical organization and coherence. Finally, Simpson places the Politics in its proper philosophical context by beginning the text with the last chapter of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, which he sees as an introduction to what follows.

In the most original interpretation of Aristotle's Politics in years, Michael Davis delivers many memorable and provocative formulations of Aristotle's messages concerning the constitutive tensions of political life. He traces the uncanny parallel between politics and philosophy in Aristotle, arguing that their connection is much deeper than it is ordinarily understood to be and that, for Aristotle, understanding either requires understanding the other. Davis presents his interpretation with a striking clarity and accessibility that makes the book a pleasure to read.

Fred Miller offers a controversial reappraisal of the Politics, suggesting that nature, justice, and rights are central to Aristotle's political thought. He sheds new light on Aristotle's relation to modern natural rights theorists, and to the current liberalism-communitarianism debate.

Prefatory : The Eden myth and the science of man --
History as regress : the Works and days, the Statesman, the Laws --
History as progress : the Prometheus bound, the Antigone, Diodorus I --
History as compromise : the Protagoras, Republic II, Politics I --
The fragments of the Greek anthropologists --
The political theory of Democritus --
In defence of democracy --
Human opinion, pragmatic judgment, and the parliamentary process --
The method and validity of political decision --
Antiphon --
The emasculation of liberalism in Aristotle's Ethics --
The rejection of liberalism in Aristotle's Politics --
Greek liberalism--the full flower.

A touchstone in Western debates about society and government, the Politics is Aristotle's classic work on the nature of political community. Here, he discusses the merits and defects of various regimes or ways of organizing political community - democracy in particular - and in the process examines such subjects as slavery, economics, the family, citizenship, justice, and revolution.

"A fresh look at Aristotle's political theory with attention to the resonance of his thought for contemporary concerns"