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Unit 4: Aristotle’s Theory of Revolution

the same right as others to enjoy a certain number of elementary and inalienable goods. “If Notes
the exercise of the rights of the citizen demands respect for proportionality and universal,
and this therefore can only belong to all men as such” (cited in Heinaman 1998: 647).
• Human nature had twofold variations and was inwardly diversified in its political
manifestations, though at the same time it was similar everywhere in the right it conferred
on each man to realize, even if in different ways, the capacities inherent in his human
essence. This meant that though Aristotle was a believer in the natural inequality of human
beings, yet he accepted that there were areas of commonality, as everybody had capacities in
different fields. In this sense he pleaded for functional categorization, with the hidden
manifestation of equality in ordinary interaction within civil society. This, in modern
terminology is referred to as the rule of law. Pointing to the ancient roots of modern
constitutionalism as reflected in the US Constitution Shklar traced its origins to ancient
Greece and observed that “the very idea of the rule of law depends on Aristotelian logic, that
is, syllogistic reasoning”.
• It was true that Aristotle’s political perceptions did not mirror the dramatic and tumultuous
changes occurring in the Greek world. His pupil Alexander the Great was building an empire,
but Aristotle continued to see the city state as the natural institution for human sociability.
He was an admirer of the Athenian model. In fact, his entire political philosophy rejected the
cosmopolitan and imperial model of Alexander. It was also a fact that, analyzed in the
context of the immediate aftermath, Aristotle was totally forgotten. The reason for this was
the narrow base of Greek politics, leading to the exclusion of large segments of society, and
the politics of withdrawal as exemplified by the non-political philosophies developed by the
Cynics, Epicureans, Skeptics and Stoics.
• The Skeptics and Stoics were critical of Aristotle. They thought that his prescriptions ignored
the diversity that was found in the world. They were critical of him for projecting the moral
values of the Athenian middle class as universal. The criticism of Aristotle gathered momentum
in the fifteenth century, but this was more on medieval Aristotelians and not on Aristotle
himself. However, in the sixteenth century Aristotle himself was attacked by writers like
Justus Lipsus (1547-1606), Pierre Charron (1541-1603) and Michel de Montaigue (1533-1592).
Charron went to the extent of criticizing Aristotle for propounding absurd notions. Grotius
rejected Aristotle’s principles of a minimum core as being inadequate in formulating important
concepts like benevolence: By 1640, many Catholic and Protestant theologians developed
a skeptical criticism of Aristotle. He was portrayed as a false philosopher, for his prescriptions
were based on reason rather than faith. Hobbes rejected the ethical foundations of Aristotelians
and the Humanists on the grounds of self-preservation. For Hobbes, Aristotle’s theory was
an impediment to scientific investigation and “with this complaint Hobbes rejects the whole
Aristotelian epistemology of matter and form, essence and existence”.
• The conserving and realistic elements in Aristotle’s philosophy were his defence of slavery
and confining women within their homes and families. This was because he believed in
natural hierarchy among human beings and that individuals differed in their abilities,
capacities and intelligence. However, he also realized that slavery was a temporary institution,
whose need and utility would be lost with revolution in machinery.
• “Aristotle’s Politics has served as a foundation work for the whole Western tradition” (Edel
1968: 410). The posthumous influence of Aristotle -was wider than Plato’s. Aquinas, Alighiere
Dante (1265-1321) and the entire Christian tradition during the medieval era was inspired by
him. Machiavelli used his ideas on mixed constitutions to analyze instability. James Harrington
(1611-1677) was influenced by his economic analysis of politics. The sociological dimensions
of his thought were taken up by Charles-Louis Secondat Montesquieu (1689-1755). Hegel,
Marx, and in recent years the Communitarians like Maclntyre drew their conceptions of an

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