The Doctrine of the Mean in Aristotle's Politics

The Doctrine of the Mean in Aristotles regime. Examining the texts of Aristotles Nicomachean Ethics and Politics nerve by side, one is bound to find parallels betwixt his reason with regard to the idiosyncratic and to the state. In Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle discusses happiness, virtue, and the good lifespan story on an individual level and lays out necessary viands for the good life of a person. He maintains that virtue is a necessary element of happiness: a man go forth be happy if he has virtues of justice, courage, and temperance, each constituting a symmetry between the extremes. But this requirement of virtue for the happy life goes beyond the individual level, as we see it in Politics. There, Aristotle claims that man is by nature a political puppet , and for that reason he can only achieve the above-named virtues as part of a state. And since the city is formed by many individuals, the virtue of the state is constituted by the individual virtues of its citizens. It is therefore clear that fulfillment of requirements for the happy life of an individual, namely being virtuous and self-sufficient, is equally necessary for the state as a whole in order to be happy.

We thereof see that the virtue of a state is directly linked to the virtue of an individual, and that therefore the means of achieving the former will draw in parallel with those of the latter. At this point, one might want to picture closer what Aristotle denotes by virtue, by what means it can be obtained, and what the effects of virtuousness are on something that possesses it. Aristotle identifies virtue as a state that decides?the mean relative to us, which is defined by reference to reason? It is a mean between two vices, one of excess and one of deficiency. The key concept in this definition is the mean relative to us, by which Aristotle understands the intermediate between something that is equidistant from each extremity . As he puts it, in everything continuous and divisible we can... If you want to get a dear essay, order it on our website: Ordercustompaper.com

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