Politeia As Focal Reference in Aristotle's Taxonomy of Regimes
Review of Metaphysics, The › Vol. 58 Nbr. 4, June 2005
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Summary
Ewbank discusses the nature of politeia as focal reference in Aristotle's taxonomy of regimes. For Aristotle, the focal reference in secondary instances can be either to a primary that is essentially different from the former and extrinsic to them, or to a primary that is the nature of a perfection common to them and possessed intrinsically in imperfect and varying degrees. Moreover, understanding of politeia as being a "mixed regime" would be a contradiction in terms, because a regime power cannot have several different authoritative opinions concerning what is just and what is not and still remain a workable political system.
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Politeia As Focal Reference in Aristotle's Taxonomy of Regimes
THE NATURE OF POLITEIA AND ITS CANDIDACY FOR STATUS as the best regime in the doctrine of Aristotle remains a disputable question. Some scholars insist that whatever the best regime may be, it must be a kind of polity.1 Others, however, firmly contend that the best must be a variety of aristocracy, with a significant number arguing that the best may be a monarchy should a suitable candidate be available.2 Moreover, it has been argued that since the ancients did not desire the establishment of "polities" and hence pluralistic politics, but that this has been a concern of the moderns, one must conclude that an understanding of politeia as being a "mixed regime" would be "a contradiction in terms, because a regime proper cannot have several different authoritative opinions concerning what is just and what is not and still remain a workable political system."3
Arguably, however, if one adverts to certain parallels in Aristotle's reasoning manifested in his considerations of method and his use of differentiae in biological analyses, his reflections on politeia are set into greater relief. After all, in Aristotle's purview, "ethics is dependent upon nature for the materials in which it has to work," even though nature imposes no predetermined law upon human nature, and so "the moral philosopher must have some theoretical knowledge of the soul, even more than the medical practitioner requires a certain amount of theoretical knowledge in regard to the body and its various organs."4 Equally must the political philosopher be cognizant of the different kinds of materials that enter into making man the social and politica...See the full content of this document
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