Aristotle was the culmination of ancient Greek thought and the most influential ancient philosopher after Plato. Yet he fiercely opposed his teacher in the main field of knowledge, Plato's philosophy held that "ideas" and "things" were separated, Aristotle transformed them into "forms" and "materials" and unified together; Plato said that cognition is only a memory, and all ideas are innately present in our minds; Aristotle retorted that the human mind is like a smooth wax block, and if the senses do not come into contact with external things, then they must not produce the imprint of the seal, and knowledge must come from the senses.
In the field of political science, Plato conceived of a kingdom ruled by a few philosophers, a country with a strict hierarchy, a clear division of labor, and public property. Aristotle, on the other hand, fiercely criticized Plato's "republic" in Political Science, and derived his political theory from the ethical idea that "virtue is a kind of moderation", arguing that the best state should be ruled by the majority of the middle class. To understand Aristotle's theory of political science, we must first begin with his critique of the "Republic."
Aristotle (384–322 BC)
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the ideal state to which Plato aspired</h1>
In the famous "State", Plato draws on Socrates to describe an ideal country. First of all, the country is based on virtues such as wisdom, bravery, and moderation, and the basic principle of the country is justice. The so-called justice is to do what is right in the country, and every man does only one kind of work that is good for the country, and this work is at the same time appropriate to his nature. In such an ideal state, the development of the individual is unified with the development of the state. So Plato said, "If the merchants, the soldiers, and the officials in this country do their own thing, then such a country is just." ”
The citizens of the republic are divided into three categories, namely civilians, soldiers, and overseers, representing the three virtues of temperance, bravery, and wisdom. The overseers belong to a small elite and possess wisdom, so that only they can enjoy political power, and their number is much smaller than that of the first two kinds of people. Because the overseers rule the country, special attention should be paid to their education and training, and if the children of the prisoners are not talented enough, they will fall into the ranks of soldiers or ordinary people.
The Republic practiced an aristocratic, oligarchic, or elite politics similar to that of Sparta. Plato believed that for the state to have the virtue of wisdom, it needed some far-sighted and erudite people to take the role of overseers of the state. These people have the knowledge to govern the whole country, but they are only a minority and stand at the very top of the hierarchy. Below them are brave soldiers, and at the bottom are civilians engaged in labor. The overseers are the rulers, and the others are the rulers. The overseers of the state must combine power and wisdom, so they must also be philosophers in addition to politicians, and they are called "philosophical kings".
On the economic front, Sparta had a communal meal system, and the corresponding republic had a thorough communal property system. The overseers were to live together like military barracks, eating together, without any property or currency. Everything between friends is shared, even the wife and children. All children are taken away by the state as soon as something goes wrong, and they are raised by the state, and no one knows who their parents are. In addition, children born without the approval of the State are illegal, and the State system interferes with family life. This was unacceptable to Aristotle, who systematically critiqued Plato's political science in Political Science.
Plato (427–347 BC)
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > Aristotle's critique of the "Republic."</h1>
Through an examination of the many ancient Greek city-states, Aristotle believed that their political organization was mainly divided into three ways: (1) all citizens must completely return all property to the public; (2) not at all; (3) part of it to the public, and the other part remained private.
Completely non-communal city-states are very rare, and there will always be some public facilities and land in a city-state, and it is difficult to achieve that everything is privately occupied. In general, most city-states belonged to the third category, with families maintaining private property and government agencies exercising public ownership. It is known that it is difficult to exist in complete private ownership, but there are some who aspire to complete public ownership and try to eliminate the private ownership of the family with the public ownership of the government. The question should then be discussed– should a good city-state classify everything as much as possible into public ownership? Plato gave a positive answer, and Aristotle was tit-for-tat and resolutely denied.
The issue of public property can be discussed in two parts, the first part being whether property can be returned to justice. The second part is whether the wife and children can be returned to justice?
Aristotle said that the return of property to the public creates endless disputes and disputes, because it makes everyone's interests unprotected and the boundaries are very blurred. If the land is divided into hills and acres, and each belongs to private property, then everyone can only enjoy the fruits of his own labor, even if he does not have enough to eat, he cannot blame others; if the land is completely returned to the public, cultivated by everyone, and then the products are distributed to each person, so many people who work and get less will complain about those who work less and get more, and they often quarrel over some small reasons; if the land and products are all owned by the public, then everyone will regard himself as the master, and will not want to be someone else's servant, and will not work in the land. Instead, production is wasted.
Plato thought that the realization of public property would make all people as close as children, but they turned against each other. Because the return of property to the public blurs the dividing line of interests between people, since no one's interests are guaranteed, then anyone's interests will be violated. On the contrary, the private ownership of property clearly defines these boundaries of interests, and everyone can legally defend their rights and interests within their own scope. So Aristotle said:
"By drawing a clear picture of the scope of all the interests of the individual, the root causes of quarrels between men will be eliminated; if each pays attention to the cause within his own scope, the situation of each family can be improved."
If those public things are not included in the scope of personal interests, people will wantonly waste or steal them as if they were public goods. Therefore, public goods should be maintained in a certain number to meet public needs, rather than continue to expand and infringe on private interests.
Secondly, the conversion of wives and children to the metric system is a regression of social ethics, which, instead of promoting the care of adults for children, has caused widespread indifference. If a parent has only one child, he will inevitably cherish him in all his ways; conversely, if the children in the city-state are all my children, then I will have hundreds of children, and fatherly love will be divided into hundreds and thousands. The result is that any father will become negligent and lazy to discipline his children. Thus, Aristotle said, "People would rather be cousins of a certain person than be platonic children." ”
Plato wanted to have complete public ownership among the top class overseers, which was impossible. The "Republic" was in fact a slave state, and the slave owners wanted to form a public class without private property in order to maintain the longevity of their rule; in order to ensure the purity of the blood, they wanted to implement the system of sharing wives and children. They want to use the state to destroy the family and suppress the lower classes, which is called elite politics. This pyramidal state was not ideal, and Aristotle believed that the best state should be olive-shaped, that is, ruled by a middle class.
"I love my teacher, but I love the truth even more."
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > countries ruled by the middle class are the best</h1>
Plato believed that the state should be ruled by a class of wise, intelligent, and high-blooded overseers who had the expertise to govern the country and were the best in the crowd. Aristotle believed that those who are fit to rule the country can be neither geniuses nor fools, geniuses can easily become violent and arrogant criminals, and fools often degenerate into rogues and rogues, the former violent, the latter cunning, neither virtuous. In the Nicomachean Ethics, he argues that virtue is a moderation, and that only the middle class, between the elite and the fools, possesses political virtue.
In any country there is always one class that is very rich, another class that is very poor, and the majority of the people in the middle, that is to say, they have a modest amount of property, and they live neither poorly nor generously. Those born into rich families have been accustomed to a life of demand and demand since childhood, so they lack the spirit of obedience and do not obey the government control. Once they are in power, they will become oblivious and arrogant. And those who have struggled to fill their stomachs since childhood, often for the sake of livelihood, become unscrupulous, no bottom line, they will be good at flattery when they are in the wild, and they will become tyrants after they are in power. Therefore, neither of these people is suitable to be rulers. The former will lead to one-man despotism, and the latter will lead to mob rule.
Aristotle said in Politics:
"A city-state should be composed, as far as possible, of equal and identical people; and such people are generally of the middle class."
The middle class is the most stable class, they have a moderate amount of property, and they are neither jealous of their abilities or vain comparisons as the rich, nor covet other people's things as the poor. They don't murder others, and they don't often get murdered by others. The middle class does not, like the elite, think that they have mastered the divine revelation of the future society, and sacrifice the happiness of the present in order to bring people to uncertain blessings in the future. The middle-class state is based on the present, making everyone as comfortable as possible and not forcing them to sacrifice their personal interests in order to achieve the development goals of the city-state. Nor does the middle class, like the lowly political hooligans, form parties for personal gain and wage partisan struggles to the detriment of all in the city-state at the expense of internal friction. They have the concept of equality, they live adequately, and there are no excessive conflicts of interest or overlap with others, so they do not need to join the party struggle, but are good at legislation, and know how to use legal order rather than struggle to manage the country.
In Aristotle's view, the rich and noble cannot obey, so they can only rule arbitrarily; the poor class does not know how to command, and must be ruled like slaves, and if they accidentally turn over, they will rule others as slaves. In these two city-states ruled by extreme classes, citizens were divided into masters and slaves. Only in the city-states ruled by the middle class can there be free people, and the participation of citizens in the effective management of the government can be maximized.
"So it's clear that the best political societies are made up of middle-class citizens."