1. ARISTOTLE’S THEORY OF HUMAN PERSON, ETHICS & POLITICSBY
SUDARMINTA

2. THE HUMAN PERSON
The composite substance is a natural body endowed with life, the principle of this life is ‘the soul.’ The unity of the human person is emphasized as the unity of soul & body as form & matter (hylemorphism)
The body must be as matter to the soul, while the soul is as form to act to the body.
The soul is thus the cause and principle of the living body, (a) as source of movement, (b) as final cause, and (c) as the real substance (i.e. formal cause) of animate bodies.

3. THE HUMAN PERSON
The soul is the actuality of an organic body; the soul works through the bodily organ.
The doctrine of soul as the form of the body  difficulty to account for the immortality of the soul; one possibility if by referring to his doctrine of the active intellect whose function is not dependent upon the body.
Rejects Pythagoras’ & Plato’s semi-religious doctrine of reincarnation while avoiding the purely materialist explanation of sensation & thought propounded by Empedocles & the Atomists.

4. Faculties/Powers of the Soul
Instead of speaking of 3 parts of the soul like Plato, Aristotle used the term “faculty” or “dynameis” of the soul
The lowest form of soul is the nutritive or vegetative soul, found in all living beings.
The higher form of soul: the sensitive soul, which exercises the three powers of sense-perception, desire, and local motion, found only in animals.
The specifically human soul is the rational soul, which unites in itself the powers of the lower souls, but possesses nous, the power of speculative thought and of practical deliberation.

5. ETHICS
Teleological in nature: conducive to human good; what is the good for man?
>< Platonic Ideas: there is different good for different classes, different aim for different types of action
The aim ethical study is practical, not theoretical
Human action is the subject-matter of ethics, human action cannot be determined with mathematical exactitude.

6. ETHICS
The end of life is happiness (eudaimonia). It consists in activity according to virtue or in virtuous activity, understanding by virtue both the intellectual and the moral virtues.
We become virtuous by doing virtuous acts.; good character is developed by doing virtuous acts
Virtue is a mean between two extremes: Cowardice – Courage – Foolhardiness.
Virtue is neither natural nor contrary to nature; by nature we are adapted to receive it, and it is made perfect by habit.
The virtuous person is the one who possesses practical wisdom, the ability to see what is the right thing to do in the circumstances.

7. ETHICS
Virtue is a disposition to choose according to a rule based upon the judgment of practical wisdom (phronesis)
Moral action presupposes freedom; only voluntary action incurs responsibility to the agent.
Aristotle’s analysis of moral process: (1) the agent desires an end; (2) the agent deliberates, seeing that B is the means to A (the end to be obtained), C the means to B, etc, until (3) he perceives that some particular means near to the end or remote from it, as the case may be, is something that he can do here and now; (4) the agent chooses this means that presents itself to him as practicable here and now; (5) he does the act in question.

8. POLITICS
For Aristotle, ethics is part of politics: dealing with how to live a good life
Like Plato, Aristotle was firmly convinced of the positive and educative function of the State.
The end of the State is the supreme good of human beings, their moral and intellectual life.
Since human being is a political animal (zoon politicon), itt is only in the State that human beings can live the good life in any full sense, and since the good life is their natural end, the State must be called a natural society.

9. THE STATE
Human beings differ in intellectual and physical capacities, and are thereby fitted for different positions in society.
Slavery is founded in nature. The master should not abuse his authority, since the interests of master and slave are the same.
Aristotle was against the practice of money lending for interest (“Money was intended to be used in exchange, but not to increase at interest”)
He rejected Plato’s picture of the ideal State: such radical changes would not be desirable. The notion of communism would lead to disputes, inefficiency, etc. The enjoyment of property is a source of pleasure.

10. THE STATE
The rule of many good men, aristocracy, is better than monarchy.
Aristocracy is perhaps too high an ideal for the contemporary State, and so he advocates “Polity,” practically equivalent to rule by the middle class, and more or less a half-way house between Oligarchy and Democracy.
Rulers should have no opportunity of making money for themselves out of the offices they hold; they should be loyal to the constitution, have the capacity for administrative work and integrity of character.

11. THE STATE
The State must be large enough to be self-sufficing, but not so large that order and good government are rendered impracticable.
The territorial extent of the State should not be so small that a leisure life is impossible nor yet so large that luxury is encouraged.
Citizens: farmers & artisans are necessary, but they will not enjoy citizen rights. Only the warriors will be citizens in the full sense.
Like Plato, Aristotle attached great importance to education of statesman: the body is to be trained for the sake of the soul & appetites for the sake of the reason