POLITICS OF ARISTOTLE

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XOTES, B00h- 11. 6. 59


are Nor mould he have thought for
a moment of a shoemaker, or agricultural labourer, exercising
political rights. On the other hand, it is true to say that Plato
has noj\here defined the position of the lower classes: he has
thus evaded the question of slavery to which Aristotle was keenly
alive. He acknowledges the difficulty of this question in the Laws
v. 7i6 ff.

be excluded from office.

Tois i&&~ Xdyo~s. 6. 3.



  1. e. with digressions, such as the attack upon the poets (Rooks
    ii and iii), the theory of knowledge (v, vi, vii), the doctrine of
    immortality (x). To Arisiotle these appear irrelevant, though
    naturally entering into Pldto's conception of the state, which
    includes philosophy and religion as well as politics.
    r&v 62 vdpav ri, piv rrkciurov p";os vdpo~ ruyxdvouarv o"vrrs, dXlya 62 6. 4.
    srp'l rijs soXLrC$s SZP~KEV.
    This statement is far from accurate. The truth is that in the
    Lav s of Plato a nearly equal space is given to the constitution and
    to legislation ; the latter half of the fifth book, the sixth, seventh,
    eighth, and a portion of the twelfth book being devoted to the
    constitution ; the ninth, tenth, eleventh and the remainder of the
    tivelfth to legislation.
    Ka'l Talh'lpJ ~ou~dpSvos KOlVOTdpUV sorciu TaiS nO%€UL Ka7b p1KPdV 6. 4.
    xcpdycr x&v npbs T+V Zdpav noXirtLav.
    For a similar use of the word KOLVOTE'PUV cp. c. 6.


ir~pov xoXr~ciuv, sc. the Republic.

16, ci plv oh

The idea of good, the rule of
philosophers, the second education in dialectic, the doctrine of
another life, are the chief speculative elements, as the community
of property, and of women and children, are the chief social or
Practical elements, of the Republic which vanish in the Laws (Laws
v. 739). The spirit of the Republic is more ideal and poetical,
of the Laws more ethical and religious. Plato may be said to
'bring round the Laws to the Republic' in the assimilation of
male and female education, in the syssitia for women, in the asser-
tlOn of the priority of the soul to the body and of her fellowship
wth the gods; in the final revelation of the unity of knowledge to


KOLUOTdTTlV Tll;T?U KQTaUK€lJd(€l TO;E ITbkEUL 7i)V ak0V BOXLTEhVj K.7.h.
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