Comparing Aristotle and Plato
Connor High
Classical Political Thought
12/15/10
Examining Plato and Aristotle’s Political Regimes Structures
Plato and Aristotle both understood the importance of wisdom and virtue in founding a good regime. In their writings, they suggest the effect they felt a ruler had on a regime and vice versa. Where Plato saw a linear slope of five increasingly misguided and degenerating regimes, Aristotle saw six regimes: three true and three corrupt. Each regime has a ruling political good. This will be more apparent in Plato’s Republic, but is also present in Aristotle’s Politics. They agree that a good ruler will yield a good regime, but differ in their opinions of how the perfect regime should be managed. It’s important to note which people qualify as citizens and their status relative to the regime. Both philosophers set out to identify the capabilities and dynamics of all regimes and devise a way to achieve the best possible regime to channel human ambition and desire. Aristotle gives a number of definitions for regime, but the one most applicable would be “the way of life of a city as reflected in the end pursued by the city as a whole and by those constituting its governing body” (Politics, 94). In the Politics, there are six distinct types of regimes presented. These regimes are separated into two categories, the ideal regimes and the perversion of those. The ideal regimes aim for the common good while their counterparts aim for the good a specific part of the regime. The true regimes are limited to kingship, aristocracy, and polity. The best regime of these regimes is kingship, or monarchy, which is ruled by the single person most fit to rule. The corrupted form of monarchy becomes tyranny. The next regime, aristocracy, is ruled by a few who possess a certain degree of wealth. And once aristocracy is corrupted it becomes an oligarchy. In an oligarchic regime, those few who possess wealth rule with advantage to themselves and others who
Classical Political Thought
12/15/10
Examining Plato and Aristotle’s Political Regimes Structures
Plato and Aristotle both understood the importance of wisdom and virtue in founding a good regime. In their writings, they suggest the effect they felt a ruler had on a regime and vice versa. Where Plato saw a linear slope of five increasingly misguided and degenerating regimes, Aristotle saw six regimes: three true and three corrupt. Each regime has a ruling political good. This will be more apparent in Plato’s Republic, but is also present in Aristotle’s Politics. They agree that a good ruler will yield a good regime, but differ in their opinions of how the perfect regime should be managed. It’s important to note which people qualify as citizens and their status relative to the regime. Both philosophers set out to identify the capabilities and dynamics of all regimes and devise a way to achieve the best possible regime to channel human ambition and desire. Aristotle gives a number of definitions for regime, but the one most applicable would be “the way of life of a city as reflected in the end pursued by the city as a whole and by those constituting its governing body” (Politics, 94). In the Politics, there are six distinct types of regimes presented. These regimes are separated into two categories, the ideal regimes and the perversion of those. The ideal regimes aim for the common good while their counterparts aim for the good a specific part of the regime. The true regimes are limited to kingship, aristocracy, and polity. The best regime of these regimes is kingship, or monarchy, which is ruled by the single person most fit to rule. The corrupted form of monarchy becomes tyranny. The next regime, aristocracy, is ruled by a few who possess a certain degree of wealth. And once aristocracy is corrupted it becomes an oligarchy. In an oligarchic regime, those few who possess wealth rule with advantage to themselves and others who
Bibliography: Aristotle. Politics. Ed. Carnes Lord. London: University of Chicago Press, 1984. Bloom, Allan. The Republic of Plato. New York: Basic Books, 1991.