Aristotle and Marx: Political Philosophies

Posted on Nov 28, 2024 in Philosophy and ethics

Aristotle

Aristotle, a pupil of Plato, was a highly influential Greek philosopher of the 4th century BC. He developed important theories about politics.

Policy: Man as a Social Animal

1. Introduction

Individuals achieve happiness and well-being in a community. According to Aristotle, man is a political and social animal. To live outside the polis (city-state) is to be either more or less than human.

  • Humans possess logos (reason), distinguishing good from evil, right from wrong, which only makes sense in a community.
  • Animals only have a voice to express pain or pleasure.
  • An isolated individual is not self-sufficient.

2. The Natural Communities

Man is inherently social, existing in various communities:

  • The family meets daily needs, comprising wife, husband, children, grandchildren, slaves, and animals. Family relationships include:
    • Pairing of male and female (reproductive)
    • Parent-child relations
    • Master-slave relations
    The father leads, defending his family. Slaves are needed for wealth production, though dispensable if tools could do the work. Some are slaves by nature (lacking rational souls).
  • The village is a group of families meeting needs they can’t meet alone.
  • The polis is the perfect, self-sufficient group, where humans are fully realized and achieve happiness. Only citizens (free men) can attain this.

Purpose of the State

The state’s purpose is to achieve the common good and improve citizens’ welfare. Aristotle justifies slavery for this purpose.

Political Regimes

A political regime organizes society. Government can be by one, a few, or many. Correct regimes aim for welfare and happiness:

  • Correct: Monarchy (rule by one for the community), aristocracy (rule by the best), republic (rule by many for all).
  • Wrong: Tyranny (rule by one for personal gain), oligarchy (rule by the rich for their benefit), democracy (rule by the poor for their advantage).

Virtue and the Middle Class

Karl Marx

Karl Marx, a 19th-century German philosopher, is a key figure in contemporary thought, influencing socialist and communist ideologies. His work on historical materialism aims to make history a science.

Marx argues that the economy determines societal consciousness, evolving through dialectical contradictions. A new economic system arises from the denial of the previous one.

Material activity (production) satisfies human needs, but humans are determined by production relations (oppressor-oppressed classes), evolving through economic systems: master-slave (slavery), feudal lord-peasant (feudalism), employer-worker (capitalism).

Society’s structure is based on the economic structure, comprising productive forces (tools, machinery, labor, raw materials) and production relations. The ideological structure includes legal, political, religious, philosophical, and artistic forms of consciousness.

History is the development of production modes due to class struggle. The transition between modes occurs dialectically:

  • Thesis: Opposing classes exist in each production mode.
  • Antithesis: Class conflict leads to social change (revolution).
  • Synthesis: Revolution establishes a new social form with different class relations.

This process ends when classes and private property are abolished, leading to communism (Marxism).