Textual Analysis Flashcards
“As in other departments of science, so in politics, the compound should always be resolved into simple elements or at least parts of the whole” (Politics, Book One, I.1)
In Reeve: “What I am saying will be clear, if we investigate the matter in accord with the method of inquiry that has guided us elsewhere [i.e. scientific inquiry]. For as in other cases, a composite must be analyzed until we reach things that are incomposite, since these are the smallest parts of the whole, so too it is by investigating the parts of which a city is composed that we shall see better…” (Reeve edition, p. 2)
Analysis: method of identifying components/parts of difference complex entities, breaking it down into parts until it can’t be further broken to understand its composition, how it compares to other entities, how else it could be, how it ought
Treatise
System builder, systematic investigation/scientific methodology, not random mess of thoughts, collector of specimens+observations to find patterns that explain how the universe works
Telos + Ruling Component
Telos (DNA): aim, ends, internal purpose, goal, full potential, required to understand analysis-breakdown into components
Ruling Component/Rule (Nucleus): pushes compilex entity to telos
* Reason (ought to be Ruling Component): rationality
* Appetite: impulses
* Thumos: spirit, righteousness
“For…nature is an end. For what each thing is when its coming to be has been completed, this we say is the nature of each—for example, of a human, of a horse, or of a household. Further, its for-the-sake-of-which—namely, its end (telos)—is best, and self-sufficiency is both end and best” (Reeve ed, p. 12)
Self-Sufficiency: indication of reaching Telos
“For what each thing is when fully developed, we call it nature, whether we are speaking of a man, a horse, or a family. Besides, the final cause and end [i.e. telos] of a thing is the best…” (Politics, Book One, I.2)
Nature: tends this way in nature, order that unfurls/gives things its telos, is what ought to be=is normatively good/best
“…it is evident that a city is among the things that exist by nature, that a human is by nature a political animal [zoon politikon], and that anyone who is without a city, not by luck but by nature, is either a wretch or else better than human, and, like the one Homer condemns, he is ‘clanless, lawless, and homeless’” (Politics, Book I.2, p. 4)
“For nature does nothing pointlessly, as we say, and a human being alone among the animals has speech” (Politics, Book I.2, p. 4)
“Anyone who cannot live in a community with others, or who does not need to because of his self-sufficiency, is not part of a city, so that he is either a wild beast or a god” (Politics, Book I.2, p. 4)
People as a political animal (zoon politikon) are the smallest unit of the polis.
City States are natural (like a beehive), by nature humans should be part of state to reach Telos
* Evidence is Logos (speech): we can talk about the goodlife, truth, justice, beauty, virtue, not just babbling, puts us beyond animal → man as political animal (zoon politikon)
A-polis (stateless): one without a state by nature (can’t live with others) is a beast or god
Origins of Rule
“Since we see every city to be a sort of community, and every community to be formed for the sake of some good…then, while every community aims at some good, the [state] encompasses all the others, and aims at … [the highest good]” (Politics, Book I.1, p. 2; translation adjusted for clarity)
“the city both exists by nature and is prior in nature to the individual” (Politics, Book I.2, p. 4)
- Oikos (household): union b/w Man & Woman + Master & Slave for survival, procreation of children, economic necessities for life/bio
- Village (set of Oikos): division of labor/specialization to get better at survival until economically stable and SUDDENLY passes line of sufficiency
- State/City: most fundamental form of human organization & association, comes prior to you, Telos can only be achieved by being part of it. Free time to discuss how to live well, Summum Bonum (highest good), The Good Life
“a slave is a sort of animate piece of property” (Politics, I.4, p. 6)
The Ruled in the most extreme form → Slavery: living possession/animate property
“some things are set apart straight from birth, some to rule, others to be ruled” (Politics, Book I.5, p. 6) the slave “shares in reason to the extent of perceiving it but not to the extent of having it himself” (Politics, Book I.5, p. 7). “For in whatever is composed of a number of things…a ruler and a ruled are always seen, and this is present in animate beings on the basis of their entire nature” (Politics, Book I.5, p. 7)
Doctrine of Natural Slavery: (1) some people are naturally slavish/marked out by birth to rule and some to be ruled, (2) written in constitution of universe, idea of hierarchy in natural world/hierarchy is natural, if people were born equal doctrine of slavery wouldn’t be justified.
Private Sphere
Private Sphere=Oikos (household) composed of
Patriarchal Rule (kingly rule): union of Man & Woman
Despotic Rule: Master (dominus) & Slave, personal rule
“Nature tends indeed to make the bodies of free people and slaves different, the latter strong enough to be used for necessities, the former upright in posture and useless for that sort of work, but useful for political life… But the contrary also often happens, namely, some have the bodies of freemen, whereas others have the souls” (Politics, Book I.5, p. 8)
Signs of Natural Slave: nature tends to make bodies of free people (posture) & slaves (physical) difference, can be contrary/not always universal, impossible to distinguish
* Doesn’t share in reason of the ruler, degenerate, enough to take orders, not enough to delegate, discuss virtue, give orders
* Can’t control themselves, letting appetite rule over reason
* Physically built for labor, to work in fields
For someone is said to be ruled as a slave, or to be a slave, in two ways, since by law too a person can be a slave or be ruled as a slave” (Politics, Book I.6, p. 8) Note: One can be a slave by nature, by law, or by both.
Issue when Natural Slave & Legal Slave Don’t Align: both sources have issues, can’t fully justify slavery/create institution to fit natural slavery. Leaves us with the problem and moves on to other things.
Political Sphere: Aristotle argues that the rule used in PVT sphere shouldn’t be implemented in the political/public sphere, instead
“For it is possible for wars to be started unjustly, and there is no way in which someone would say that the person who does not deserve to be in a condition of slavery is a [natural] slave” (Politics, Book I.6, p. 9) “the one lot [legal slaves] are not always slaves by nature nor the other free” (Politics, Book I.6, p. 9)
Just war to legitimize legal slavery, unnatural war means people aren’t natural slaves
“For they think that in just the way that human comes from human, and wild beast from wild beast, so too good people come from good ones. But, though nature tends to do this, it is nonetheless often unable to do so” (Politics, Book I.6, p. 9)
Procreation, children of slaves: Aristotle argues children of slaves aren’t natural slaves
