Harvey Mansfield on Aristotle, Democracy, and Political Science

Conversations with Bill Kristol

News, Society & Culture, Government, Politics

4.7 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 29 December 2018

⏱️ 50 minutes

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Summary

What does Aristotle have to teach us about democracy and the relationship of philosophy to politics? A profound treatment of this theme is found in "Aristotle: Democracy and Political Science" by Delba Winthrop (1945 – 2006), which has just been published by the University of Chicago Press. In his sixteenth appearance on Conversations, Harvey Mansfield draws on Winthrop’s book and her stunning interpretation of Book III of Aristotle’s "Politics." Mansfield argues that the political quarrels in every city between a “democratic” party and an “oligarchic” party have something crucial to teach us about political science, natural science, and human nature. As Mansfield demonstrates, Aristotle’s "Politics" reveals that philosophers have something to learn from politics. And, if they do, according to Mansfield, “they’re no longer just natural philosophers but political philosophers. This would make political philosophy central to all philosophy. Politics shows you the central heterogeneity of things.”

Transcript

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0:00.0	And the Hi, I'm Bill Crystal. Welcome to Conversations. I'm very pleased to be joined again by
0:19.3	Harvey Mansfield.
0:20.3	Hello.
0:21.3	Professor of Government at Harvard University, and author of a wonderful forward to a wonderful
0:26.2	new book by his late wife, Delba Winthrop, on Aristotle Democracy and Political Science.
0:32.0	So say a word about the book and then we'll talk about Aristotle.
0:36.0	That's the name of the book.
0:37.0	Maybe I'll start with a word about her.
0:39.0	Please.
0:40.0	Yeah. She was born in 1945 and died in 2006 of cancer a little sooner than one would have wished.
0:50.0	But this is her dissertation that she produced in the year 1974, and it's going to be published
0:58.8	now for the first time by the University of Chicago Press with not a word changed.
1:05.0	This is very unusual, almost an event in publishing,
1:11.0	usually one never gets one's dissertation
1:13.4	published without some editing, but this was extremely well
1:17.6	written. She was a small woman, not quite five feet tall, and she was not smart but very smart.
1:28.9	And I will agree with that.
1:30.3	He had an unusual name, first name, Delba, and a Yankee name, Winthrop, for a last name,
1:40.8	but she came from a Jewish family and picked up the Winthrop at Alice Island.
1:45.0	Yes, that was a good acquisition by her grandparents or whoever that was.
1:49.0	So that's Delva Winthrop.
1:52.0	And why didn't she publish the dissertation?
	...

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