What is the best way of life? What is the best political regime? How could we decide such questions? And how could we persuade others to accept our wise prescriptions? This course will consider the three great political texts of Aristotle: the magisterial Nichomachean Ethics, the Rhetoric, and the Politics. Emphasis will fall on the links between the three texts, mediated as they are by Aristotle's understanding of physis (nature) and the human psyche (soul/mind) in particular. In considering the Politics, different possible readings of Aristotle on monarchy and politeia (the mixed regime) will be weighed against the background of Aristotle's Platonic heritage.
Monday: Nichomachean Ethics I
Tuesday: Nichomachean Ethics II
Wednesday: The Rhetoric
Thursday: The Politics
Friday: Interrelations in the Aristotelian philosophy
Level: This is an introductory course. Some prior knowledge of philosophy or the history of philosophy is preferred, but not essential.