Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics

For Aristotle, the personal is the political. His Nicomachean Ethics, a teleological treatise, emphasizes the importance of excellence of character (arête) in living out one’s best life, not an unfamiliar concept at the time. However, his emphasis on the practicality of theoretical ethics differentiates him from pre-Socratic philosophers and to an extent Plato himself. Aristotle, in his other treatise, Politics, actualizes his theoretical ethics though politics, which in its Greek form more accurately translates to “of or relating to the polis.” His teleological political ideas, as opposed to moralistic politics, stress a well-run politeia, meaning system of government or constitution, that benefits the citizenry as well as furthers their

Aristotle describes the human “impulse toward…community” as “by nature” ( I.1253a.30-31 p. 5). By human nature, people also have the ability to speak and therefore convey ethical concepts to govern said community (p. 4 14-17). He further builds upon this idea by incorporating teleological ethics saying, “But justice is a political matter; for justice is the organization of a political community, and justice decides what is just” (p.5 37-38). Though people’s ability to communicate complex thought is inherent, as well as forming groups, Aristotle does not take for granted a person or community’s capacity to flout high-minded ideals. For any political system to work, he knows that one must account for the human propensity to

To form a city-state based on anything else such as “wealth” or “freedom,” exclusively, is a corruption of the concept that leads to systems like extreme oligarchy or extreme democracy (p. 81 1281a 2-6). Intriguingly, however, Aristotle also warns that, “In aristocracies factions arise because few people participate in office, which is just what is said to change oligarchies as well, because aristocracy too is oligarchy of a sort” (p. 149 21-24). Though Aristotle still supports the idealistic notion of aristocracy, he also hints at a flaw in this “romantic” politeia, that, functionally, it is hard for populace of the city-state to distinguish between a legitimate aristocracy and an illegitimate oligarchy but also hints at, possibly, the fallibility of humans in enacting such a system. For this reason, even though oligarchy is a closer relative to aristocracy, ideologically, Aristotle must recognize that the democratic elements of polity allow virtues to be pursued or that there is some virtue in