DEMOCRACY OR UTOPIA?
They also differed in their social status and political thought. Plato was from a noble Athenian family, whereas Aristotle was a métoikos (a foreigner with no political rights), as he had not been born in Ath- ens. Plato criticized Athe- nian democracy, and in his Republic proposed an ideal state with three classes: t h e p h i l o s o p h e r s , w h o governed it; the warriors,
who defended it; and the workers, who produced. In contrast, Aristotle’s Politics defended moderate de- mocracy as the lesser evil, and strongly criticized utopias. He wrote, “in de- mocracy the citizen is not b o u n d t o o b e y a n y o n e else; or if he does obey, it is on the condition that he in turn commands; hence freedom is reconciled with equality in this system.”
A
lthough Aristotle owed a great deal to Pla- to’s teachings, he rejected the idealism of his teacher. Plato asserted that only ideas tru ly existed (things in this world were mere cop- ies), and he believed in an immortal soul. Aristotle, how- ever, saw tangible things and everyday experience as the only true reality. He did not believe in other worlds.with a basis for a fairly new approach to moral philosophy, known as “virtue ethics.” Aris- totle seems to ask and answer questions about moral character and education, morality and the emotions, and what it is to be a virtuous person; questions that are topical today. Where other approaches to moral thinking ask, What rule should I follow here? or weigh up the con- sequences of options in a cost-benefit analy- sis, followers of Aristotle’s moral philosophy ask, What would a virtuous person do? Is this act kind and generous, or cowardly and cruel? They examine individual virtues such as cour- age, charity, and justice and ask how a coura- geous, charitable, or just person would act in these circumstances.
Because of its focus on the character of the in- dividual as an agent of morality, it might appear that virtue ethics has little to say about public policy, a just society, or political philosophy. But it does. Virtue ethics has informed the debate about an ethos of care, and is taken seriously by theorists of public policy, including feminist theorists. What’s more, if the good society is
THE SCHOOL OF ATHENS
This 16th-century fresco by Raphael depicts famous Greek thinkers. In the center Plato points at the heavens (the world of ideas), but Aristotle points toward the earth (the only true reality).
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY51
made up of virtuous individuals, then society’s schools and laws need to be reformed to teach and develop strong moral characters.
Running through all of Aristotle’s work is a passion to investigate reality in order to under- stand. This challenges the postmodern view of the world as just too complicated to be under- stood. Aristotle’s driving assumption is that if we try really hard we can work out how things fit together and what they are for. He sees this as a collective effort that is both difficult and easy: No one can attain it in a wholly satisfactory way and no one misses it completely. Each of us says something about nature, and although as individuals we advance the subject little, from all of us together something sizable results. Even if Aristotle would find many aspects of contemporary society utterly unrecognizable, his ethical work is still relevant today, and so is his take on politics. To argue this you need to assert that these ideas can be separated from his advocacy of slavery and the subordination of women—but that is fairly easy to do, as Ar- istotle’s omnivorous approach to knowledge and
understanding stops him from developing a tight, formally structured system in which each part depends on every other part. In fact, this is one of the great attractions of Aristotle’s thought: He is cautious about the amount of precision we should aim at in our answers. He asks for no more precision than the subject mat- ter has itself. So if the thing under examination is slippery and vague, then our account of it must reflect this, rather than forcing it into a nice, neat system. The result is that while it can take a little while to really get into Aristotle’s writing, he is ultimately a lot clearer in his ideas than some modern philosophers.
A KING’S TEACHER
While at court in Pella (above), the capital of Macedonia, Aristotle taught the young prince Alexander a wide range of subjects and inspired in him a love of the heroic and epic poems of Homer.
JONATHAN E. PIKE
PIKE’S WORKS COVER THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY, INCLUDING THE INFLUENCE OF ANCIENT GREECE ON MODERN THOUGHT.
BOOKS
The Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle, Penguin, 2004.
From Aristotle to Marx: Aristotelianism in Marxist Social Ontology
Jonathan E. Pike, Ashgate, 1999.
The Lagoon: How Aristotle Invented Science Armand Marie Leroi, Bloomsbury Circus, 2014. Learn more
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CETACEANS: THE MAMMALS THAT LIVE IN THE SEAAristotle was not only the first to consider cetaceans as mammals but he also differentiated between fish with bones and those with cartilage.
At the beginning of The History of Animals, Aristotle says
that“some animals are viviparous, others oviparous, and still others larviparous,” terminology still in use today. He
explained that viviparous animals include“cetaceans, such
O R O N O Z / A L B U M
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THE SURPRISING WAY IN WHICHOCTOPUSES REPRODUCE
Aristotle noted a peculiar feature of cephalopod reproduction that was not rediscovered until more than 2,000 years later, in the 19th century.
After describing how octopuses copulate,“they join at the mouth, intertwining tentacle by tentacle,” Aristotle added, “there are those who say the male has a kind of virile mem- ber on one of his tentacles . . . and that this
member is a kind of tendon stuck right into the tentacle, up to half its length, with which he penetrates the fe- male’s nose.”And he was right:
This member does exist: it is the hectocotylus, a modi- fied tentacle that cepha- lopods like the octopus use to transfer sper- matophores, or sperm packets, into the female.
KAMARES CERAMIC POT WITH AN
OCTOPUS, CRETE, CIRCA 2000-1700 B.C.
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THE CHICKEN’S EGG, OR HOW ALIVING BEING IS FORMED
We are indebted to Aristotle for the first study of embryology, which gives a detailed and systematic description of the development of a chicken embryo .
After careful observation he wrote:“With the common hen, after three days and three nights there is the first indication of the embryo: the yolk comes into being, rising toward the sharp
end, where . . . the egg gets hatched; and the heart appears, like CERAMICA ROOSTER, FROM APULIAASKOS (WINE VESSEL) IN THE SHAPE OF
a speck of blood, in the white of the egg. This point beats and moves as though endowed with
life.”He explained that“the life-element of the chick is in the white of the egg, and the nutriment comes through the navel-string out of the yolk.”