Aristotle and the Science of Politics

For the great philosopher, Good life is living in accordance with virtue and developing intellectual and moral character for which the State should create ambient conditions, writes Ramesh Chandra Misra.

- Ramesh Chandra Misra

Greek philosopher, Aristotle is beyond any shade of doubt the founding father of the science of politics. Being an ardent admirer of his teacher Plato's Ideal State, he was more of a realist. His approach to the art and science of politics was empirical. He studied the existing constitutions and explored what components would form part of a system of Government that would be moral and yet functional. He climbed down from the Himalayan heights of Plato's Republic and looked at the actual behaviour of people in the plains when they transact the affairs of the state. To the idealism of Plato he joined his pragmatism. Plato was a bold and original genius whereas Aristotle was the sober genius. Plato's legacy will ever be worshipped for its sheer originality whereas Aristotle will be remembered as the forerunner of empirical investigation of the science of politics. Aristotle accomplished the astonishing feat of compiling 158 constitutional histories opening the gates of a broader political theory. He had taken more from the later works of Plato, the Statesman and the Laws. He was more respectful of conventions and emphasised that the experience of the ages should not be disregarded. He felt that Plato’s Republic was brilliant but too radical and speculative. In the complementarity of the theories of these two philosophers, we find the noblest expression of political thought.