"Man is a political animal", Aristotle asserts near the beginning of the "Politics". In this novel reading of one of the foundational texts of political philosophy, Eugene Garver traces the surprising implications of Aristotle's claim and explores the treatise's relevance to ongoing political concerns. Often dismissed as overly grounded in Aristotle's specific moment in time, in fact the "Politics" challenges contemporary understandings of human action and allows us to better see ourselves today.
Close examination of Aristotle's treatise, Garver finds, reveals a significant, practical role for philosophy to play in politics. Philosophers present arguments about issues – such as the right and the good, justice and modes of governance, the relation between the good person and the good citizen, and the character of a good life – that politicians must then make appealing to their fellow citizens. Completing Garver's trilogy on Aristotle's unique vision, "Aristotle's Politics" yields new ways of thinking about ethics and politics, ancient and modern.
About the Author
Eugene Garver is the Regents Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Saint John's University and adjunct professor of philosophy at the University of Minnesota. Among his earlier books are "Aristotle's Rhetoric: An Art of Character" and "Confronting Aristotle's Ethics: Ancient and Modern Morality", both published by the University of Chicago Press. In 2008, he bicycled from Cairo to Cape Town.
Reviews
"Upending a truism, Garver finds Aristotle's 'Politics' more practical for us than his Ethics. In a work that is at once meditative and analytical, Garver leads us to realize that our actual, as opposed to our imagined, sense of the political can, upon reflection, give us a conception of the human good as substantive, shared, flexible, and multifaceted as Aristotle's. In his refracted light we can see, as he did, that constitutions can be made morally better than the people in them and that under some conditions political stability is a moral good. Students and scholars of ancient philosophy, political theorists, and political scientists alike will find their minds turned around by this book" – David Depew, University of Iowa
"'Aristotle's Politics' deals insightfully, even masterfully, with the core philosophical issues that lie at the heart of our being as social and political animals. Whoever reads and studies this book carefully will grow in political subtlety and intellectual maturity, adding to his or her store of understanding the wisdom of a scholar who has spent years plumbing the meaning and the message of one of the landmarks of human inquiry" – Lenn E. Goodman, Vanderbilt University
"In this elegant book, Garver approaches Aristotle's 'Politics' in a deeply satisfying manner: by constantly asking tough, intelligent, and living questions, both as a way of understanding what Aristotle was actually saying in this inherently foreign text, and as a way of connecting the 'Politics' to political thought and action in our own very different world. All this is done with an extraordinary energy, fidelity, and intellectual honesty. An important and remarkable book" – James Boyd White, author of "Living Speech: Resisting the Empire of Force"
"Garver's insightful book will challenge and inform every student of Aristotle, especially those students who are also teachers. His reading of the 'Politics' is similar to Aristotle's reading of the human condition in its subtlety, care, and openness to puzzle and perplexity. The central theme is captured in Garver's subtitle: in what ways do the practices of humans living together both promote and threaten the prospects for human well being? Taken together, Garver and Aristotle illuminate for our reflection problematic elements of the 'Politics' and of the human condition we modern readers are not likely to see without their help" – Stephen Salkever, Bryn Mawr College
