58 Polıteía
cause they are selfish in this fashion, “the old live for advantage and not for the
noble,” and they prefer what is good for themselves to what is good in and of
itself. They are not bashful like the young, but shameless; and “in concerning
themselves less with the noble than with the useful, they exhibit a contempt
for reputation.”
Aristotle contends that their position in life affects even the time orienta-
tion of the elderly. Where the young thrive on hope, the old look to memory;
where the young live in the future, the old live in the past. They tell stories be-
cause “they love to remember.” Aristotle emphasizes also that, while old men
“are sharp in temper, they are weak in their anger.” In fact, their desires are in
general weak, and their “actions owe less to passion than to profit.” For this
reason, the philosopher can remark that “such men only seem to be moderate
[sōphronıkoí]—for their desires have waned and they are enslaved to gain.”
Accordingly, the old are strikingly different from the young.
They live more by calculation than in accord with the dictates of moral
character—for calculation aims at the advantageous and character aims at
virtue. And they treat others unjustly out of wickedness, not out of inso-
lence [húbrıs]. The old may be prone to pity but not for the same reasons
as the young. The latter feel pity out of a sense of fellow-feeling [phılan
thrōpía]; the former out of weakness—for the old think that they, too, may
suffer everything and this inspires pity—whence they are disposed to com-
plain and are neither jesters nor lovers of laughter. For querulousness is
the opposite of the love of laughter.^64As should be evident, the young and the old are opposed in virtually every
respect—and the young are not only far better suited to war because of their
physical strength; they are better suited to such pursuits by temperament as well.
But the very qualities which make it proper that young men serve in the
front lines in time of battle render them unfit for rule, particularly in a regime
like that of Lacedaemon. Fighting and the actual conduct of war may favor the
passionate and the bold, but diplomacy and statecraft generally require cau-
tion and precise calculation. The qualities which render old men less generous
and more selfish than the young render them also shrewder, less trustful of
foreigners, and far less apt to embark on grand but foolish ventures. In foreign
affairs, where interest presides, pusillanimity is certainly not a virtue, but then
neither is the excessive high-mindedness of the young. Statesmen should not
be bashful. They must, in fact, be prepared to be shameless on occasion. In
particular, they must be ready to sacrifice the noble for the sake of advantage,
for they must care more for the city’s survival than for its reputation. Further-