The Nature of the Political

1
The Nature of the Political

• The Ancient Perspective

2
Platos Allegory of the Cave

• (Quoting Socrates) See human beings as though
  they were in an underground cave-like dwelling
  with its entrance, a long one, open to the light
  across the whole width of the cave.
• They are in it from childhood with their legs
  and necks in bonds so that they are fixed, seeing
  only in front of them, unable because of the bond
  to turn their heads all the way around.
• Their light is from a fire burning far above and
  behind them. Between the fire and the prisoners
  there is a road above, along which see a wall,
  built like the partitions puppet-handlers set in
  front of the human beings and over which they
  show the puppets.
• Then also see along this wall human beings
  carrying all sorts of artifacts, which project
  above the wall, and statues of men an other
  animals wrought from stone, wood, and every kind
  of material as is to be expected, some of the
  carriers utter sounds while others are silent.

3
The Analogy Further Discussed

• Such men the cave prisoners would hold that
  the truth is nothing other than the shadows of
  artificial things.
  
• The point?
• Our understanding of the world is largely
  conditioned by the political regime in which we
  live
  
• What we take to be true is conditioned by what we
  have seen displayed on the walls in front of us
  throughout our lives and what we have heard
  echoed within our cave.
• Unlike The Matrix, however, the argument of
  Platos analogy is that we can only achieve
  understanding by reflecting upon those things we
  have taken to be true and attempting to determine
  if they really are true.
• In other words, to escape the cave, we must study
  the cave.

4
Whos Holding the Figures?

• The analogy speaks of human beings who carry all
  sorts of artifacts in front of the fire to cast
  the shadows for the prisoners to see. What kinds
  of people does Socrates have in mind?
• The founders of any given regime. (e.g., Homer
  for the Greeks, the Founding Fathers for us) I
  
• What artifacts did the founders put on the wall
  in front of us?

5
Aristotles Politics The Authoritative
Partnership

• Aristotle writes The partnership that is most
  authoritative of all and embraces all the others
  does so particularly, and aims at the most
  authoritative good of all. This is what is
  called the city or the political partnership
  (Chapter 1, The Politics).
• Further, it would seem to belong to the one that
  is most governing and most a master art, and
  politics appears to be of this sort, since it
  prescribes which kinds of knowledge ought to be
  in the cities, and what sorts each person ought
  to learn and to what extent (Chapter 2, The
  Ethics)
• Since this capacity makes use of the rest of the
  kinds of knowledge, and also lays down the law
  about what one ought to do and from what one
  ought to refrain, the end of this capacity should
  include the ends of the other pursuits, so that
  this end would be the human good. (Chapter 2,
  The Ethics)

6
The Authority of the Political

• Like Plato, Aristotle thinks, as human beings, we
  can only achieve knowledge of the world by
  beginning from and taking our bearings within the
  political world.
• This is because, as human beings seeking to know
  what is good for us, we are confronted
  immediately by an authoritative claim regarding
  what is good for us the political claim.
• Unlike other mere opinions about what is good for
  us, politics implicitly claims to know what is
  good for us when it prescribes and proscribes
  certain activities within what Aristotle always
  refers to as the city.
• This is not to say that it actually knows whats
  good for us but it implicitly claims such when
  the city uses its authority to prescribe and
  proscribe. This is what makes it, as Aristotle
  says, most a master art.
• To achieve knowledge of the actual human good,
  Aristotle argues, we do best to start from the
  citys implicit claims in its laws to have such
  knowledge

7
Why is it that Politics has this Authority?

• The partnership arising from the union of
  several villages that is complete is the city.
  It reaches a level of full self-sufficiency, so
  to speak and while coming into being for the
  sake of living, it exists for the sake of living
  well. (Politics, B1, Ch2)
• Aristotle claims that, while human beings might
  first come together solely out of a concern for
  survival, they soon seek something more from the
  city.
• They come to think that the city exists for the
  sake of living well it doesnt just keep them
  safe it exists to provide them with a good life.
  
• Politics, especially political authority, can
  teach us how to live well.
  
• Part of this teaching involves power that is
  more than instructional.
  
• By enforcing its prescriptions and proscriptions
  through punishment and rewards, the city hopes to
  guide us toward the good life.

8
Mans Political Nature

• From these things it is evident, then, that the
  city belongs among the things that exist by
  nature, and that man is by nature a political
  animal That man is much more a political animal
  than any kind of bee or any herd animal is clear.
  
• For, as we assert, nature does nothing in vain
  and man alone among the animals has speech
  Speech serves to reveal the advantageous and the
  harmful, and hence also the just and the unjust.
  For it is peculiar to man as compared to the
  other animals that he alone has a perception of
  good and bad and just and unjust and other things
  of this sort and partnership in these things
  is what makes a household and a city.

9
Man is by nature a political animal

• This is a strong claim and one of the take-home
  quotations from Aristotles Politics.
  
• While what he means by it is not entirely clear
  in the context, it means at least this man
  naturally creates political regimes and naturally
  uses the political regime to seek the good life
  for which Aristotle says the political regime
  exists.
• Politics, with all of its authoritative
  statements about what we should and should not
  do, comes naturally to us.
  
• We could exist without a city but such a man is
  either a mean sort or superior to man.
  
• That is, a man without a city is either a beast
  or a god.
  
• Because were not beasts and want to improve
  ourselves, we need the city for guidance.
  
• Because were not gods and need help to become
  better, we need the city for guidance.

10
Mans Distinctiveness Speechs Articulation of
Justice

• Unlike the other animals, man has speech.
• While beasts can indicate to each other the
  painful and the pleasant, man can perceive and
  indicate through speech the good and bad and the
  just and the unjust.
• Are the good and the bad the same as the just and
  the unjust?
  
• Justice sets limits upon our pursuits, saying we
  can do certain things and cannot do others in
  doing so, justice claims to be good for us.
  
• It is partially because we can articulate limits
  upon ourselves that we are different than the
  animals

11
Mans Potential Savagery

• Since we can perceive what is good and bad and
  just and unjust means, Aristotle claims that,
  when completedman is the best of the animals.
  
• But, when separated from law and adjudication he
  is the worst of all. That is, without the
  citys laws as guidance, or without the virtue
  they aim at, man is the most unholy and the most
  savage, and the worst with regard to sex and
  food.
• Why might this be?
• Because were above the beasts but below the
  gods, and, as such, potentially viciously savage,
  we need the citys guidance to make us virtuous.
  

12
But Which City?

• We return once again to the point from which we
  began. Having seen the need for political
  guidance, the question, for the ancients, then
  became which type of regime best guides human
  beings. And, in their investigations, they were
  immediately confronted by the following truism
• The things that are beautiful and just, about
  which politics investigates, involve great
  disagreement and inconsistency, so that they are
  thought to belong only to convention and not to
  nature.
• The convention/nature distinction. What is it?