Page 36 - DPOL201_WESTERN_POLITICAL_THOUGHT_ENGLISH

Western Political Thought

Notes sciences aimed to explore Truth as their ultimate goal, deduced with the help of logic from self-
evident principles. Aristotle divided theoretical knowledge into First Philosophy (theology),
mathematics and physics. First Philosophy dealt with “being qua being”, and examined the nature
of first cause. In the Middle Ages, it came to be referred to as metaphysics. Mathematics included
arithmetic and geometry. Physics included botany, biology and chemistry. “In spite of its
insufficiency, Aristotle’s classification exerted a very strong influence upon the whole development
of philosophy and science down to our own day”.
Aristotle described politics as the master science and art, for it determined the ordering of the
sciences to be studied in a state by every class of citizen. Within the ambit of politics came subjects
like military science, economics and medicine, which assumed meaning by focusing on the primary
or general good of humans.

Aristotle equated ‘Good’ with happiness or eudaimonia, and was confident that it could be
attained through education, a branch of politics.

Aristotle criticized Plato’s theory of Forms on three grounds. First, he denied that the “general”
could be “substantial”. Second, he criticized Plato for making “properties” of things outside the
things of which they are properties. Third, he questioned Plato for supporting Forms or Ideas as
causes of phenomena, when in reality they lacked a moving force. In doing so, he proceeded to
distinguish between Matter and Form. Matter was the raw stuff out of which specific things
emerged. It was shapeless and undefined. However, within Matter there existed some latent form
that differentiated one thing from the other. Form, according to Aristotle, was in Matter and not
outside it. Matter was “potentiality”, and Form “actuality”. The Form within Matter provided
definite shape, making it less indefinite and undifferentiated. It should be noted that Aristotle
arrived at the conception of relation between Matter and Form as potentiality and actuality by his
studies in biology. Having examined and observed the embryos of pigs and cattle, he could state
that they did not differ, yet one embryo in normal circumstances became a hog and the other a cow.
He explained that this was possible because of the presence of Form within each, which was impressed
itself on what appears to be undifferentiated Matter. For Aristotle, while Form gave matter its shape,
matter itself was undifferentiated and shapeless. But neither could achieve its actuality without
being attached to what he termed as an “efficient” cause. Each Form was itself a reflection of a final
cause. The latter provided the form which worked within the matter that was launched by the
efficient cause. Extending the Socratic idea, Aristotle contended that a complete account of a thing
was possible only if the parts were examined with reference to their implicit purpose or end.
Aristotle’s political philosophy was both a critique and a corrective of Plato’s ideas. As opposed to
Plato’s radical reforms in the Republic, Aristotle sought to conserve and preserve existing traditions
and institutions. This made Aristotle a liberal conservative, proposing realism and gradualism as
the best options in politics, subsequently reiterated by Burke and the English Fabians. His principles
of the golden mean, advocacy of mixed constitutions, faith in middle-class rule as being best for
ensuring a stable and enduring government, conviction of the family being the bedrock of the
state, and the necessity of property to ensure self-sufficiency and fulfil the instinct of possessiveness
in the individual, indicated his philosophy of moderation and belief in continuity. He “valued
individual quality, privacy and liberty above social efficiency and power”. Aristotle emphasized
conservation and moderation, and these remained guiding principles in his political philosophy.
Aristotle was critical of the scheme of the Ideal State that Plato outlined in the Republic. He
contended that Plato’s emphasis on unity, instead of harmony within a state, would only lead to

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