POL200Y5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Polis, Aristocracy
23 Mar 2017
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It is an ideal: the ideal poleis, constitutions and the ideal poleis. If we could wish for something and just get it, then that would be easy to choose, one should choose aristocracy, ruled by the few best. The end of a polis aims towards this, its association: not impossible to find this in a polity, but it is not the aim, virtue and happiness require certain ingredients. Ingredients for a good life for aristotle are external goods, which are material things, but there are also goods of the body. Goods of the soul is living according to the morality of the virtue. Being too physically inclined can be bad (sparta): this is the standard by which the ideal polis should be judged. Too large a polis would find it difficult to enforce the law. Civic functions can be performed properly if citizens can say no to each other.
