Work · Ancient Greek
Politics
The human being as a political animal (zoon politikon); a comparison of constitutions.
Introduction
Eight books, probably not written as a single course. Book I begins with the household and defends natural slavery and the rule of men over women, views now widely rejected. Book II criticises Plato’s Republic, especially common property and families. Book III asks who counts as a citizen and distinguishes six constitutions: kingship, aristocracy and “polity” rule for the common good; tyranny, oligarchy and democracy serve the rulers alone. Later books examine why constitutions decay and describe the best possible state. Aristotle’s school collected 158 city constitutions as material; only the Constitution of the Athenians survives.
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Connections
Criticizes
- Republicc. 375 BCE · Plato
Taken up in
- The Defender of the Peace (Defensor pacis)1324 · Marsilius of Padua
- Discourses on Livy1517 · Niccolò Machiavelli
- Capital1867 · Karl Marx
- The Human Condition1958 · Hannah Arendt
- Homo Sacer1995 · Giorgio Agamben
Criticized in
- Leviathan1651 · Thomas Hobbes
More works by Aristotle
- c. 350 BCEOn the Soul (De anima)
- c. 350 BCEOrganon
- c. 350 BCEPhysics
- c. 340 BCEMetaphysics
- c. 340 BCENicomachean Ethics
- c. 335 BCEPoetics
Appears in
- Journey ‘What Is Just?’ · Stop 2 of 10
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