Topics Philosophers

Question Where on the political spectrum are Aristotle's political views?

Accepted:
August 15, 2013

Comments

Aristotle is usually classified as a "classical republican," which is more misleading than helpful, given contemporary American political party names. A "classical republican" is typically contrasted with a "classical liberal," which only makes matters worse, given contemporary political (ab)uses of the "L-word."

So here is a quick-and-dirty (read: not entirely adequate) brief account of what these terms are supposed to mean. A classical liberal is one who tends to think in terms of maintaining limits on the government's power to interfere in individual people's liberties. (A term related here that is also important in contemporary rhetoric is "libertarian.") Classical republicans tend to think in terms of what would make the best and most effective (or most admirable or choiceworthy) constitution, such that the entire welfare of the community is the primary consideration.

Anyway, for better than a quick-and-dirty, look up these terms in the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy (see the lower right link on this page).

In contemporary political debates, no sides (right, left or center) map perfectly onto this distinction. In general, considerations of such things as "basic human rights" tend to fall on the classical liberal side. Some scholars have tried to find elements of such thinking in Aristotle, but that remains a very controversial position among scholars. As I say, most regard Aristotle as much more of a classical republican. In general, however, I would characterize most political discourse in American politics as mostly saturated with classically liberal elements and with attempts to shape governments with concerns for individual liberties prominently (if not always or even mostly entirely honestly, I suspect) on display.

OK, so you are probably trying to figure out how I have answered your question. So let me be more honest: I don't think there is any very clean answer to your question. The contemporary political spectrum is far too much a thing of the present to get any clear assessment of where Aristotle would fit. We could probably do a better job on specific issues, but even here, I think that many of the issues that drive contemporary politics are simply alien to the theories that Aristotle advanced, so that applications of his theories to those issues would be a matter of considerable speculation and controversy.

Question Where on the political spectrum are Aristotle's political views? Accepted:August 15, 2013

Question Where on the political spectrum are Aristotle's political views?

Accepted:
August 15, 2013