Politics (Aristotle)

Lore & Background

Aristotle was Macedonian and attended Plato's Academy in Athens for about twenty years. He returned to Macedonia in part to tutor a young Alexander the Great, then went back to Athens to found his own school, the Lycaeum.

Though he spent most of his life and career in Athens, he was never an Athenian citizen, but a resident alien with few political rights; he could not own property. Throughout his life, he was never a fully-fledged citizen of any Greek polis. As a Macedonian and tutor to Alexander, he was well-placed in the good graces of political leadership until Athens challenged Macedonian power, and he went into exile to avoid anti-Macedonian attack.

Reader's Guide

The Politics is notable for its evidence-based, descriptive approach, contrasting with Plato's more idealistic method. The work is not a polished publication; it may have been assembled from shorter works, marginal notes, or lecture notes from the Lyceum. The work's title, meaning 'the things concerning the polis,' is the origin of the modern English word politics. Aristotle's hierarchical system considers politics, the study of communities, of higher priority than ethics, which concerns individuals.