Building upon the foundations of his seminal discussion of the good life, virtue, happiness, and the golden mean in the "Nicomachean Ethics", Aristotle now turns his attention to man as a political being and to the nature of the state. How do human relationships mirror specific political associations? What is the nature of political man? What is the proper purpose of the state with respect to those it governs? Who should rule, and what are the characteristics of those who govern well? Can anyone make the laws for the society, or is this function best suited to certain members of the community? How should a regime rule in order to achieve the purpose of government? These questions are addressed by Aristotle within the context of his description and analysis of the political societies of his time. The result is a penetrating discussion of rational ideals combined with practical political reality.
ARISTOTLE was born in the northern Greek town of Stagira in 384 B.C.E., where his father was the personal physician to the great-grandfather of Alexander the Great. At the age of eighteen Aristotle entered Plato's Academy and soon became recognized as its most important student. He remained under Plato's tutelage for nearly twenty years. After his teacher's death in 347 B.C.E., Aristotle cultivated associations with other Academy students throughout Greece and Asia Minor. Then in 342 B.C.E., Aristotle was asked by King Philip II of Macedonia to become the tutor for his young son Alexander, who was later to become the conqueror of much of the known world at that time. The young prince remained under Aristotle's supervision until 336 B.C.E., when he acceded to the throne after his father's death. Two years later Aristotle returned to Athens and founded his own school, which he called the Lyceum. This intellectual center flourished during the years when Alexander the Great ruled Greece as part of his large empire. But upon Alexander's death in 323 B.C.E., Aristotle was charged with impiety by Athenians who resented his associations with the Macedonian conqueror. Rather than risk the same fate as Plato's mentor, Socrates, Aristotle fled to the city of Chalcis, where he died in 322 B.C.E. Aristotle's interests, like those of Plato, were diverse and his writing cast its shadow on many fields, including logic, metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, politics, and the sciences. Among his most well-known works are: The Categories, The Prior and Posterior Analytics, The Physics, The Meta-physics, De Anima, The Nicomachean Ethics, and The Politics.
