The Completion of the Philosophy of Human Affairs in Aristotle's ›Politics‹

This study addresses the often-discussed relationship between the two works that comprise Aristotle’s philosophy of human affairs, the Nicomachean Ethics and the Politics. Their relationship has been described often by determining “politics” as the subject of both.

By this view, for the Nicomachean Ethics a political dimension is claimed which it does not have. While in Nicomachean Ethics 1.1 a political knowledge which possesses absolute powers is introduced, it has no counterpart in the Politics and is an abomination by the general views of the Politics about the powers, that is people, that govern the polis. On the other hand, by the view that Aristotle´s practical philosophy was unified, the Politics is not recognized as a theoretical study in its own right, which is independent of anything discussed in the Nicomachean Ethics, and pursues its own objectives.

This study will focus on the central subjects of the Politics, its theoretical concepts and their relationship to one another. It will emphasize the dominant theoretical approach of this work, which develops in a systematic manner the crucial political concepts of polis, community, constitution, and addresses the political aspirations of free citizens which must be met.

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Eckart Schutrumpf, University of Colorado at Boulder, Colorado, USA.