Aristotle, Politics, and Ethics of Saint Augustine

Aristotle: Historical and Sociocultural Framework

Historical and Sociocultural Framework: A period where significant political changes occurred. The Greek polis suffered a decline in political power compared to the previous century, due to the Medical Wars and clashes between Greek cities (Athens, Sparta, etc.) in the Peloponnesian Wars. This continued with the invasion of Macedonia by Philip II and ended when Alexander the Great, son of Philip II, unified all of Greece under his command. He then conducted the invasion of the Persian Empire. With Alexander, Greece ceased to be politically independent, though Greek culture and civilization spread throughout a vast territory. Aristotle maintained good relations with Philip II and his son Alexander, which caused him many problems, especially after Alexander’s death, forcing Aristotle to flee the city. In this period of crisis and transition, with the polis losing its status as an autonomous political entity, Aristotle’s political thought can be interpreted as an attempt to halt this irreversible process of decay.

Athens’ cultural life was affected by the loss of its old political and military hegemony. However, Athens remained the center of artistic, philosophical, and scientific activity. There were two main centers of learning: that of Isocrates, devoted to rhetoric, and the Academy of Plato, focused on philosophy. Aristotle chose the latter, and later founded his own educational institution: the Lyceum, also known as the Peripatetic school.

Philosophical Framework

Regarding Plato’s philosophy, Aristotle rejects the Theory of Ideas: sensible things are realities and not shadows or reflections of Ideas. Platonic Ideas are useless to explain movement, as they are immutable. He dismantles the unity between philosophy and politics. There is no point in rulers being philosophers, as they cannot know a world of Ideas that is separate from the sensible world. He rejects the dialectical method, which involves ascending to the Idea of the Good, and instead focuses on building a new method: logic. Aristotle retained the teleological aspect of Platonic philosophy and its conception of science as knowledge of essences. He rejected the void (non-being) and random elements in the explanation of nature, instead favoring a theory of potentiality and teleology. There is an overlap in the value of sensitive knowledge, transcending the Eleatic view that natural knowledge is only opinion. Following Democritus, he understood that science of sensible things is possible.

Politics

Political science deals with the study of what constitutes the best community organization for its citizens to live a happy life. The polis, through its way of life, guarantees citizens an autarkic (self-sufficient) existence by providing basic resources and fostering the development of virtues and human capacities in its citizens. Aristotle affirms the natural necessity of the state and its superiority over the individual. The Constitution is the fundamental law of a polis, establishing the organization of the city. Citizens have the privilege and duty to participate in decision-making. There are different political regimes: monarchy (government by one individual), which degenerates into tyranny (when despotic power is used); aristocracy (government by a few), which degenerates into oligarchy (when the rich in power neglect the welfare of the community); and timocracy or censitary democracy (government by many: people who pay a certain rent are entitled to vote), which degenerates into demagoguery and becomes democracy. Governments should pursue the happiness of their citizens. Aristotle did not show a preference for any particular regime, but favored a middle class to lead the polis and make the most important decisions. For Aristotle, the ethical notion of the mean applies to good government policy.

Saint Augustine: Ethics

Saint Augustine proposes an ethics of happiness, a hedonistic ethics: the goal of human conduct is happiness. Man seeks unity with God’s will and drives the soul through love (Christian charity). Evil is the absence of good. This refutes Manichaean dualism. The soul becomes the slave of the body, and evil arises from the misuse of free will. Man is responsible for evil, not God. The Christian God holds man accountable for his actions, as man has been created free. There is a distinction between free will (the human capacity to act voluntarily, leading to evil due to original sin) and freedom (the ability to make good use of free will, with the help of divine grace).