Aristotle’s Concept of Politics: A Critical Assessment

Abstract

Particularly in third-world countries, there has been an increasing lack of understanding or disregard for the fundamental nature, goal, and end of politics over time. Aristotle is more struck by multiplicity than Plato is by the unity that permeates phenomena. Because of this, Plato combined the two bodies of doctrine in ethics and politics by working deductively from his philosophical conceptions of virtue and the good, whereas Aristotle distinguished each science as having its own field by conducting extensive observation and minute analysis of objective facts. This has led to nasty situations, such as poor leadership and poor governance, which have turned into the bane of politics in certain regions. There is no disputing the fact that one of the indicators of the absence of effective and ideal or authentic practise or reality of politics is a lack of clarity in grasping the notion of politics. The first person to define politics and its subject matter, nature, objective, or end was the political philosopher and scientist Aristotle. He defined politics by pointing out its fundamental components, such as art, science, ethics, the rule of law, education, etc. This view reveals an inherent connection between politics, ethics, economics, and the state—a connection that we aim to define in great detail in this paper.