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Reading: Aristotle, Politics
Book IV, Chapters 4-9

RSVPs will receive directions to our meeting place in Rice Village by personal message the week of the event...

In January we discussed Chapters 1-3. Aristotle begins by directing our inquiry into 'what is the best form of government for a given people under a given set of conditions as well as 'what is most in accord with one's wishes and no external impediments.' These two criteria may be guiding his discussion of how political actors should approach the challenge of setting up a new government, rearranging an existing one, or even preventing a bad regime from getting worse. This is the context of his treatment of the various forms and the varieties within each form.

Chapter 4 is a detailed application of this approach to democracy, and he begins, 'one should not regard democracy in a simple way, as some people habitually do now.' In Chapters 5 and 6 he does the same for oligarchy and the various mixtures of democracy and oligarchy. In Chapters 7-9 he finally turns his attention to 'polity' or 'constitutional rule' and how it differs from the other forms.

Here are three translations to choose from:
Cairnes Lord -- most commonly used translation in universities today:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ANLZ3rQyO4a4kQ5sc-RL2U5IRmHpinX0/view?usp=sharing
Cairnes Lord, the Kindle version:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Z1jCLFbE02XOLU1qKljshb9T8kBGnbEk/view?usp=sharing

Ernest Barker -- the gold standard when I was in school:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AL8sjX-DsQO6fM1Ht-IQuKDw9Hy_Bvfm/view?usp=sharing

Joe Sachs -- a recent translation that sticks closely to the Greek and is very helpful with Greek terminology:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1A3Px3tYlFaXXJwNbwmS9jG9_oZsXZnvi/view?usp=sharing

And here are two works that help explain the 'how' and the 'why' of what we do:
Shared Inquiry -- a handbook on the basics of our approach to reading and discussion:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IDhAZ5cG6kVSeruK9QinPRa_htbIJEKu/view?usp=sharing

How to Read a Book, a guide to reading the great books by Mortimer Adler, one of the founders of the movement. An electronic edition of this classic text that will make anyone a better, more thoughtful reader:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/16du5KmLxq1HDhRyRFxHgnz6cKvIoV-Gd/view?usp=sharing

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