Politics and Philosophy in Ancient Greece

Politics and Justice:

Historical emergence of the independent
city-state / polis
Understood as the peak of human
civilization
Polis as principle domain in which human
fulfillment could be sought.
Political theorizing began in arguments
about what politics was good for, who could
participate in politics and why.
Justice defined the basis of equal
citizenship and was said to be the
requirement for human regimes to be
acceptable to the gods.
Justice, as the foundation of political life,
would enable its participants to flourish and
to achieve the human end of happiness.
Politics, Justice and Equality
Justice depended on treating equals
equally, and only the equals as full citizens.
The politically equal were understood as the
elite and wealthy.
The space of the politically equal was the
space of participation in speech, decision
and action.
Citizens were divided between the few
(elite) and the many (poor).
The many and the few deliberated together
as to how to conduct public affairs, sharing
either by custom, by election or by lot.

Socratic Ethics and Its Relation to Politics
The unexamined life is not worth living,
Pressed for definitions of the virtues or
excellences which were widely recognized
and claimed by his fellows but which they
found difficult to explain.
Posited the existence of political expertise.
The notion of political knowledge limited to
one or few experts, as opposed to the
embedded and networked knowledge
produced and exercised by the whole
demos of Athens in their judgments and
deliberations, struck at the central premises
of Athenian democracy and those of Greek
politics more generally (oligarchy rule of
wealth, tyranny sheer power)
The relation between politics and
knowledge, the meaning of justice as a
virtue, the value of the military courage,
which all Greek cities prized in their citizens.


Plato

Conceptual analysis is not an end to itself,
but a preliminary step.
Making decisions about the right political
order are the most important choices one
can make in politics. Such decisions cannot
be left solely in public opinion.
Public opinion does not have enough
foresight and gets its lessons only *post
factum from disasters recorded in history.
Clarification of concepts -> Evaluate beliefs
-> Answers the question of the best political
order


States come about because individuals
have needs they cannot satisfy alone.
Individuals with different talents have
complimentary needs.
There is an element of specialization of
functions.
Ideal State
o
Tradesmen

Auxiliaries


Rulers









Rulers
o The authority
G u a r d i a n s
o Responsible for the administering
the laws
Protecting the status quo
Ensuring the size of the state
is neither too small nor too
large as to result in dis-unity
Determining the appropriate
couples for mating
Determining who could
potentially be worthy of
becoming a Guardian
Auxiliaries
o i.e. Warriors
o Responsible for protecting the
commonwealth
o They enforce the rulers decisions
Guardians
o Comprised of individuals who have
proven themselves worthy of
protecting the states interests
before their own
o Subjected to trials throughout their
lives
o They must protect the
commonwealth and guard its
interests
o Further divided into Auxiliaries and
Rulers
o Setting Guardians apart
Training
i.e. Guardians whose parents
are Guardians or exhibit
qualities suitable for the
status
Subjected to rigorous training
at an early age
Encompasses physical
training, mental training and
ones integrity
Communal Lifestyle
Guardians should have no
possessions apart from the
bare necessities
They must share everything
with each other: housing,
wives, children
They will not earn monetary
salaries
Platos idea is that if they
hold everything in common,
they shall hold the states
interests above their
personal interests.
Plato believed that
individuals have inborn
talents that determines ones
lot in life
Plato encouraged the
inbreeding of factions, and
that the state can benefit
from an ideal pedigree of
rulers
Wisdom
Rulers have that added
virtue of wisdom
Auxiliaries are renown for
their courage
Tradesmen
o People with specific skills that cater
to ordinary business life -> farmers,
carpenters, masons, weavers
Who should rule?
o Philosopher King
o true and enduring
o They desire knowledge, and are
inclined to know things that are
unchanging.
o This separates the philosophers
from the unthinking multitude who
tend to side with what is popular
o does not fear death, would be fair
minded, gentle and sociable
o A philosopher king cannot afford to
be timid, biased, harsh or reclusive
o brave, temperate, and thereby just
o Must posses the appropriate mix of
virtues Plato feels are natural to man
o preserve the status quo
o The philosopher-king desires to
know the true and enduring.
o Hence, would favor preserving the
existing state of affairs
o The philosopher-king would be the
king of the ideal state
Analysis of Platos Republic
o Plato was wary of democracy, where
the popular will could be fleeting
and transient
o The structure of his ideal state and
conception of who should rule is
rooted from his view that men
possess certain innate talents
unique to each.
Every person has his
function, but not every
person is a ruler.
o Plato emphasizes unity as the
supreme value of the state
o The organic unity of the state
possesses a particular wholeness
much like an organism -> Class
division based on specialization
o The goal of the state is the overall
happiness of the state and not of
any one particular class.
o Individual happiness must be
subordinate to the needs of the state
at all costs
o The basis of political rule is
knowledge
o The tradesmen are separated from
the auxiliaries, even more so the
auxiliaries to the rulers are the
knowledge (wisdom) they possess.
o In this regard, the best should rule
o Rulers can only be effective if they
put the public interest before private
concerns
Guardians must live in
communal living
arrangements as a means to
keep them from developing
private interests to avoid
acting contrary to what is
good for the commonwealth


Aristotle
Believed in the concept of Nature
o There is a certain natural order to
things
o All things have a specific function or
purpose to fulfill
The whole is greater than the sum of its
parts.
o Collective achievements can
surpass individual ones
The Nature of the Polis
o Certain relationships in life are
natural
o Household -> Village -> Polis
o Individuals group into families or
households
o Households group to form villages
o Numerous villages comprise a polis
o The Polis is a natural
organization
o Men strive to be self-sufficient but
cannot be so alone
o The nature of the polis is to be self-
sufficing
o It grows for the sake of mere life,
and it exists for the sake of the
good life.
o Good Life
A virtue that separates us
from mere animals i.e. we
are able to communicate
ideas about what is good
and bad, what is just and
unjust
Understood as happiness
but not pleasure
To live the good life is in
mans common interest
The desire to live the good
life is common to man.
The common good is that
which is for the good of each
and every person in society,
not just the majority.
Justice belongs to the polis;
for justice, which is the
determination of what is just,
is an ordering of political
association.
Hence, man is naturally a
political animal.
He strives virtue through
politics
The goal of the polis is to
formant an environment of
justice
o Forms of Rule
Family
Necessary for the
propagation of the species
Slavery
Natural institution
Some men are natural
slaves
They are considered
property of their master or
instruments of action
Political Rule
Entails rights and duties of
citizens within a given
constitution
Free Men over Free Men
Rule in the polis
Characteristics of Political
Rule
Citizenship
Constitution
Sovereignty
Justice
Law
o Synthesis
There are necessary
conditions of the state
(natural order)
Slavery
Polis
Man is by nature a
political animal
There are integral parts of
the state
Citizenship
Constitutions
Law

Plato Aristotle
Unity is the supreme
value of the state i.e. the
guardians
Plurality and diversity
were necessary for
states to survive.
The state is for man
i.e. Ideal State
The man is for the state
What is the ideal
constitution
What constitution
suits a specific
civic body
How specific
constitutions
come about
The type of
constitution that
is most
practicable if not
ideal
The best laws
vs. the laws most
suited to specific
constitutions