Aristotle's Most Ideal Social And Political Good example essay topic

Aristotle's Most Ideal Social & Political GoodAristotle's Most Ideal Social & Political Good Aristotle's Most Ideal Social and Political Good. Political scientists' views on what the greater objective of man in the ideal state should be vary greatly. However, it is from their conclusions that one interprets which social and political good they see as the greater ideal for man. One such political thinker, Aristotle, has a greater societal ideal for man called, "the good life. ' There are generally three concepts, which make up, "the good life.

' The first is being able to have the liberty of political involvement. Secondly, understanding Aristotle's idea of one's nature is imperative to comprehending the man seeking, "the good life. ' Lastly one seeking the good life is required to have virtuous and noble characteristics. This person who follows, "the good life,' is categorized under R. Manzer's highest political and social good – liberty and self-actualization. Because of this categorization, one can state that Aristotle believes self-actualization and liberty are the highest and most ideal social and political goods. Liberty specifically, Aristotle shows to be the highest good in his ideal state.

He gives electoral power to the masses, quite unlike any other political scientists from the past. Aristotle would give the masses (with the exception of the slave class), ' the power of electing to offices, and of calling the magistrates to account, but they do not allow them to hold office singly. ' (Aristotle, p. 69) Although these masses will not actually be in office themselves, they still will be able to elect a voice to represent themselves, thus, giving them some liberty. Manzer includes in his article an excerpt from Carl Friedrich which defines liberty, "freedom is a matter of not being personally interfered with by others; in the second, freedom means sharing in the decision making, which is not being interfered with collectively. ' (Manzer p. 69) The definition of liberty and the actions Aristotle discusses to allow the masses some liberty, compare similarly to each other. This proves Aristotle's belief that liberty and to a lesser importance in this case, self-actualization, are paramount goods for his perfect state.

Furthermore, a man seeking, "the good life,' in Aristotle's state would have to be fulfilling his nature. This concept of nature is important to define, for it has little to do with the outdoors as it could have otherwise had been thought of. Aristotle says, ' the nature of a thing is its end what each thing is when fully developed, we call its nature the final cause and end of a thing is the best. ' (Aristotle, p. 61) Aristotle clearly makes reference to the idea of when one has reached his end he is at his best possible point. This concept is similar to Manzer's definition of one desiring self-actualization and liberty. When this person of Manzer's encounters self-actualization and liberty it will be at his, ' greatest maturity, [and] individuation ' (Manzer, p. 12) Meaning, when one is fully developed he is at his greatest maturity.

This will not occur, however, until one is toward the end of their life, for maturity and individuation demand life experience before they can come forth in an individual. This shows a similarity between Aristotle's ideal of one's nature with the concept of self-actualization and liberty; thus Aristotle establishes this good to be the highest, once again. Many of the personal attributes of this man seeking, "the good life,' are almost identical to Manzer's attributes that he gives to the self-actualizing, liberty seeker. This serves as direct evidence of which political good Aristotle sees as the highest. Aristotle has described the man desiring the good life to, ' have moral virtue in perfection, for his function, taken absolutely, demands a master artificer, and rational principle is such an artificer. ' (Aristotle, XII, p. 67) In other words, Aristotle believes this person will be a moral, rational thinker, capable of making wise decisions.

Manzer, like Aristotle, believes in the necessity of rational principle in the self-actualizer and liberty seeker: "The fully self-actualizing person is a healthy person. He displays a more efficient perception of reality and a greater ability to come to terms with it. ' (Manzer, p. 12) More obviously, Aristotle has been quoted as describing the good life as, "the furthest development of human potential. ' (Mooers) Manzer sees a similarity to a man desiring Aristotle's, "good life,' in his statement: "self-actualization refers to a person's desire to actualize his full potential as a human being and develop to the utmost what he is capable of becoming. ' (Manzer, p. 12) This is one of most striking examples to show that Aristotle ranks highest the good of self-actualization and liberty.

The man living in Aristotle's ideal state – attempting to achieve, "the good life,' – has many similarities to Manzer's definition of the self-actualizing, liberty seeking individual. This means that Aristotle's highest and most desirable political and social goods are liberty and self-actualization. Allowing the majority of people in the state to have political involvement displays liberty specifically. Aristotle's belief that man's best is his nature and that the nature of himself is at the end of his life, matches up with Manzer's self-actualizer.

Finally, the personal characteristics between Aristotle's man of, "the good life,' are virtually identical to the personal characteristics Manzer assigns to the man longing for self-actualization and liberty. Aristotle is an important political thinker for many reasons. One of which is because he could conceptualize this final stage of man's development, which still holds true today. Man cannot develop any further than the social and political good being discussed here. There were other political scientists, such as Hobbes, whom could not visualize to this final development of man – this makes Aristotle somewhat unique and serves as one reason why he has stood the test of time and will likely continue to do so for many more years to come. Manzer, R. "Canada: A Socio-political Report.

' McGraw Hill Ryerson, 1974 Aristotle. The Politics in Political Theory. 60-72. St. Martins Press, 1992 Mooers, Dr. Colin. Lecture. Sep. 25, 1997.