Aristotle Term paper
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The primary concern of political theorists is to determine by what form of constitution the state will most likely succeed. According to Aristotle the definition of political success means the general happiness of the citizenry. Both Aristotle and James Q. Wilson share the belief that molding excellent character within the citizenry is the first and most important step towards solidifying the happiness of the state as a whole. The basic structure of Aristotle’s philosophies are derived by gathering as much information about the history of a subject as possible (in trying to develop the ultimate constitution Aristotle went through 150 constitution from historically great nations) taking from the good and removing the bad Aristotle thought he could develop superior political theories. The conclusion Aristotle came to in his effort to write the perfect constitution was that it was necessary to first pay attention to the development of the parts of a society (the citizens). Once the parts are in harmony the emergence of the whole is the next logical step. In developing political theory Aristotle begins by addressing issues of personal character on a microscopic level believing that in turn this will assist the state on a macroscopic level. Developing character or as Aristotle refers to it, “human excellence” is an activity of the soul, rather than the physical body. Aristotle refers to the cultivation of human excellence as an activity of the soul because on a spiritual level he believes the soul to be the whole of an individual, similar to his belief that on the political level the state is the whole of a group of citizens.
Aristotle’s ideas concerning the relationship between the cultivation of character and the maintenance of a just, free, and orderly political system can be most clearly seen in book VIII of The Politics when he discusses the value of molding the minds of the youth. Aristotle proposes that the constituents of a nation establish the character of government and depending on the goodness of the character formed a political structure either sinks or swims.
What Aristotle is saying is that in order to put together a political system of maintained justice, freedom and order, society must start with the right materials. The “right materials” are young minds trained to pursue the virtues that comprise excellent adults. The sentence at the end of the first paragraph of book VIII of The Politics shows the value Aristotle placed on excellent character being a fundamental part of excellent government where he says the better the character, the better the government. The issue of government policy concerning character formation and the implications of politicians passing legislation specifically aimed at improving moral character as a means of eliminating social ills is precisely the same issue James Q. Wilson addresses in his essay The Rediscovery of Character: Private Virtue and Public Policy.
Wilson structures his essay by going through a variety of public problems he believes can only be explained by the deterioration of character in modern America. The first part of Wilson’s essay goes through present government problems within the realms of schooling, welfare, public finance, and crime, at the end of each of these summaries Wilson comes to the conclusion that lack of character is the sole underlying cause in common behind these social evils. Like Aristotle, Wilson proposes a theory of eliminating social problems beginning by improving the parts of society as means of improving the whole . Wilson suggests that we begin to do the right things with regards to small matters and through time we become accustomed to doing what is right, and we begin to take pleasure in it. This idea of developing good character through habit Wilson admits is familiar because he has borrowed it directly from the works of Aristotle.
In the last section of Wilson’s essay, Character and Policy, there is a great deal of similarity between the conclusions made by Wilson and Aristotle in regards to the necessary steps to be followed in order to eliminate contemporary problems in government.
Both Wilson and Aristotle suggest that a means to strengthen the formation of character among the very young is vital for the future of the nation and both men believe that public interest and private virtue are interdependent. Wilson states that through the simple fact that social problems exist, the government is forced to acknowledge that defects in character are partly responsible and therefore are obligated to commit themselves to passing legislation that would resolve these issues. What is interesting about the similarities between Wilson’s and Aristotle’s writings is the fact that both men made their respective conclusions after having the democratic political structure play an important role in...
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