Join us for a discussion of Aristotle's Politics
Details
Reading: Aristotle, Politics
Book IV, Chapters 11-16
Our April meeting will be held in Rice Village. RSVPs will receive details on the the week of the meeting.
Our March discussion focused on chapters 8 and 9, an extended discussion of "politea" or constitutional rule as a mixture of democracy and oligarchy, and how, when the mixture is a good one, it is not far from aristocracy. And what is a good mixture? In Chapter 9, it turns out to be a kind of mean, where elements of oligarchic and democratic principles are blended to a mean, 'beautifully mixed that it seems to be both things and neither.' Such a mixture can sustain itself because 'none of the parts of the city wants a different form of government at all.'
Here are three translations:
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 is a brief, two-page introduction to our discussion method and general group philosophy.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HhkBBuDdXgq0JJ0giLj-AdAqlCzszl_S/view?usp=sharing