Aristotle's Politics
In Our Time
BBC
4.6 • 9.9K Ratings
🗓️ 6 November 2008
⏱️ 43 minutes
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Summary
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most important works of political philosophy ever written - Aristotle’s ‘Politics’. Looking out across the city states of 4th century Greece Aristotle asked what made a society good and developed a language of ‘oligarchies’, ‘democracies’ and ‘monarchies’ that we still use today. Having witnessed his home town of Stagira destroyed by Philip of Macedon, Aristotle tried to establish a way of preserving a good society in dangerous times. How should it be governed and who should be allowed to live in it? Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Aquinas and Niccolo Machiavelli, to name but a few, have all asked the same questions and come up with wildly differing answers.Aristotle’s conclusions range across the role of wealth and the law, across men, women and slaves, education and leisure. They are far reaching, influential and, at times, deeply unpalatable. But they are also answers to questions that have not and will not go away. With Angie Hobbs, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Warwick; Paul Cartledge, AG Leventis Professor of Greek Culture at the University of Cambridge and Annabel Brett, Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Cambridge.
Transcript
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| 0:47.0 | Hello what makes a good society? How should it be governed and who should be allowed to live in it? What are politics for and are we naturally political animals? |
| 0:57.6 | These are old questions. Thomas Hobbs, Jean-Jacquesse, Jean-Jacquesneus and Nicola Maciavelli are just a few who have asked |
| 1:04.4 | them. But they all have one thing in common and that's a book by the Greek philosopher Aristotle. |
| 1:08.8 | It's called Politics, a two and a half thousand year old collection of notes that have cast a long shadow in political philosophy. |
| 1:16.0 | In the politics Aristotle tried to establish why human beings live together and how best they should do so. |
| 1:21.0 | With me to discuss Aristotle's ideas and his influence are Paul |
| 1:24.4 | Cartledge, A.G. Leventis, professor of Greek culture at the University of Cambridge, |
| 1:28.9 | and Jehobs, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Warwick at the University of Cambridge. |
| 1:36.9 | And you Hobbs, the first thing Aristotle tries to establish is why human beings live together |
| 1:42.0 | at all. Can you explain his answer? |
| 1:45.2 | Yes, he says that man is naturally a political animal and by that he doesn't mean |
| 1:50.8 | that we are geared by nature to go around putting political leaflets |
| 1:55.2 | through doors. He means that if we're going to flourish, if we're going to prosper, |
| 2:01.5 | we need to actualise our naturally and distinctively human faculties, |
| 2:07.0 | particularly our intellectual and moral faculties, |
... |
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