The Nature of the Political

1
The Nature of the Political

• The Ancient Perspective

2
Platos Allegory of the Cave

• Next, then, I said, make an image of our
  nature in its education and want of education,
  likening it to a condition of the following kind.
  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. I see,
  he said. 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.
• What does it mean?

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
  inescapably 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 carrying
  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?
• Founders of any given regime. In the case of the
  Greeks, someone like Homer fits the description.
  In our case, it would be the founding fathers.
  What artifacts did the founders put on the wall
  in front of us?

5
Aristotles Politics The Authoritative
Partnership

• In chapter 1 of the Politics, 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.
• In Chapter 2 of the Ethics, Aristotle writes
  And 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 extentSince 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.
• What does he mean by these descriptions?

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,
  most importantly, 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?

• From Aristotles Politics Book 1, Chap 2 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. What does it mean?
• So, in the first place, Aristotle claims that,
  while human beings might first come together
  solely out of a concern for survival, after
  coming together, they seek something more from
  the city. They come to think that the city
  exists for the sake of living well. In other
  words, it doesnt merely keep them safe it
  exists so as 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
  merely 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. Our natures are
  directed at it. 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.
• But this is not quite right because other animals
  are able to indicate to each other the painful
  and the pleasant. What is truly distinctive
  about man is his ability to 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. And
  in setting limits upon our pursuits, justice
  claims to be good for us. It is partially
  because we can articulate limits upon ourselves
  that we are different than the animals, he alone
  has a perception of good and bad and just and
  unjust.

11
Mans Potential Savagery

• That we can perceive what is good and bad and
  just and unjust means, Aristotle claims, that
  when completed man 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?