Mark Blitz on the Enduring Importance of Aristotle

Conversations with Bill Kristol

Government, News, Politics, Society & Culture

4.7 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 9 April 2026

⏱️ 56 minutes

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Summary

“What is human happiness? What is political excellence? What is speech, and rhetoric? It’s always important to remind ourselves of that. But especially when you have artificial intelligence, and all of these vast possible changes in human affairs, it’s important to remind ourselves of what’s basic…. And Aristotle uncovers 80%, 90%, 95% of what really one could say, I think, reasonably, and intelligently about lots of political, and ethical matters.” So argues the distinguished scholar of political philosophy Mark Blitz, author of the newly published Aristotle’s Political Philosophy. In this profound yet accessible Conversation, Blitz distills insights from Aristotle’s works on politics and ethics, covering topics such as the character of human excellence, the centrality of political regimes, the nature of justice, and the relationship between speech and deed. This is a must-see introduction to Aristotle’s reflection on the permanent human problems.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, Bill Crystal here. Welcome to Conversations. Very pleased to be joined today by Mark Blitz, old friend, teacher, teacher of my first political philosophy class I took at Harvard.
0:25.3	Now Professor Claremont, author of many books, from Plato to Heidegger, but his most recent book,
0:33.4	just out from Notre Dame Press, is on Aristotle.
0:36.7	And I thought we should, I read that it's a concise and accessible introduction to Aristotle, right?
0:41.6	In one of your, but an introduction that doesn't simplify either in one of the early reviews.
0:48.2	So I thought, well, we need a concise idea.
0:50.7	Concise and accessible introduction to Aristotle.
0:52.6	So why not have Mark explain it all to us in person?
0:56.3	Mark, thanks for joining me today.
0:58.3	Yes, thanks for having me, Bill.
1:00.4	I've always found Aristotle difficult, you know, this sort of, I think it's a reputation of being somewhat clear, clear sort of, but I don't know, it's not what you actually teach.
1:10.0	I found just when I, ages ago when I taught political philosophy, I found Aristotle one of the most challenging to teach, but I don't know. It's not what you actually teach. I found just when I,
1:11.1	ages ago when I talked political philosophy, I thought Arasota, one of the most challenging to teach,
1:14.5	but you can tell me if I'm wrong about that. And, but also tell me why Aristotle? You've written on
1:20.0	Plato quite a bit, actually, and the Germans, Nietzsche Heidegger, why now a book on Aristotle's political philosophy?
1:29.1	Yeah. So, yeah, you know, Aristotle can be difficult to teach because he's so precise.
1:35.5	So one has to work through it piece by piece. It's not exciting, you know, and it's not, it doesn't have, in many ways, the immediate interests of Plato's dialogues.
1:50.7	So, you know, that's one reason I think maybe it could be difficult to teach.
1:54.6	I mean, the reason I decided that to write this book, Aristotle's political philosophy,
1:59.8	was because I think Aristotle
2:01.7	uncovers all the basic phenomena of ethical life, of human happiness, of political life,
2:09.1	of speech and rhetoric, and everything else either builds on Aristotle or changes Aristotle.
	...

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