Summary: Great Political Thinkers : Plato To The Present | 9780155078895 | William Ebenstein, et al

Read the summary and the most important questions on Great political thinkers : Plato to the present | 9780155078895 | William Ebenstein, Alan Ebenstein.

• 4 Aristotle

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• Perversions of 3 types of true government?

  1. kingship - plutocracy

  2. aristocracy - oligarchy

  3. constitutional government - democracy (rule of the poor)

• What is the aim/function of the village?

  "aimed at something more that the supply of everyday needs"- primitive cultural wants that the family cannot satisfy.

• List the hierarchy of communities.

  1. family

  2. village

  3. city-state

• Organic conception of the state vs. the instrumentalist conception of the state

  Aristotle was the first to clearly define the state as a community and he laid the foundation for the organic conception of the state.

  ORGANIC CONCEPTION OF THE STATE: the state is a natural community, an organism with all the attributes of a living being.

  instrumentalist: (older than organic conception). - state is an instrument, a mechanism, piece of machinery used for needs & ends higher than itself.

• What is the aim/function of the city-state?

  "The state exists for the sake of the good-life and not for the sake of life only". "Political society exists for the sake of noble actions and not for the sake of mere companionship.

• Aristotle opens Politics with two major ideas...

  1. That the state is a community

  2. That the state is the highest of all communities

• Man represents a compound of qualities, what are they?

  Material appetites & biological urges

  Social sentiment

  Moral nature

• Democrats do not agree with the organic conception of the state for two reasons:

  1. No institution is entitled to claim primary & excessive loyalty.

  2. Man can feel attached to various, often conflicting groups.

• 4.2.1 A on constitutional government (polity)

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• What will happen to a state where many poor men are excluded from office, according to A?

  ... "it will necessarily be full of enemies"

• 4.3 A on constitutional government (polity)

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• Aristotle defines a citizen as:

  A. defines a citizen as: "he who has the power to take part in the deliberative or judicial administration of any state".