Aristotle

3 Pages 856 Words

Aristotle was a philosopher who lived from 384 B.C. to 322 B.C. He spent twenty years studying and working at Plato’s Academy. Plato was an influential philosopher and scholar that made a tremendous impact on Aristotle. Many of Plato’s ideologies were presented in Aristotle’s works. Aristotle demonstrated his political views in The Politics and The Nicomachean Ethics.
Aristotle stated, “Every state is a community of some kind, and every community is established with a view to some good, but if all communities aim at some good, the state or political community, which is the highest of all, and which embraces all the rest, aims at good in a greater degree than any other.” Aristotle discussed the distinction between democracy and oligarchy, and which government he desired the most. He also explored the duties and obligations of citizens to their government and vice versa. Aristotle discussed the notions of “just” and “unjust” and how laws affected them.
According to Aristotle, there were three true forms of government: monarchy, aristocracy, and constitutional republic. The perverted forms of these were tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy. The difference between the last two was not that democracy was a government of the many, and oligarchy of the few; instead, democracy was the state of the poor, and oligarchy of the rich. Aristotle preferred a monarchy, but believed that democracy was the best type of government. He favored democracy because it appeared to be safer and less susceptible to revolution. He also favored democracy because it secured the predominance of a large middle class, which was the chief basis of permanence in any state. Democracy brought society together by making people active in their government.
A government was nothing without their citizens, and citizens were nothing without their government. Therefore, there were duties and obligations due to the state from it citizens, and there were ...