Aristotle (384–322 BCE)

Aristotle (384–322 BCE)

Aristotle & Joanne B. Ciulla

Greek philosopher

Few philosophers have influenced ideas about so many subjects in so many parts of the world as Aristotle. While some of his writings have been lost, what remains of his work is impressive in its size and scope. Aristotle's research ranged from meteorology to metaphysics and from poetics to ethics. He wrote on sleep, dreams, colors, plants, animals, memory, the senses, the soul, rhetoric, metaphysics, aesthetics, and the universe. He was, among other things, a scientist, moralist, logician, poet, psychologist, and political scientist. Aristotle was not only a leader through his ideas, but the founder of three schools and tutor to one of the greatest leaders of his time.

Aristotle was born in Stagira in 384 BCE. His father, Nicomachus, was a physician in the Macedonian court at Pella. Nicomachus died when Aristotle was quite young and Aristotle went to live with relatives in Atarneus in Asia Minor. When he was seventeen, Aristotle was sent to study at Plato's Academy in Athens. Aristotle studied and then taught at the academy for twenty years. When Plato died in 348/347 BCE, Aristotle accepted an invitation from the ruler Hermias of Atarneus to settle there.

Hermias was a eunuch of lowly birth who gained favor with the Persian administration and was made a prince. He slowly accumulated political power and land, and entered into treatises with King Philip II of Macedon. Hermias studied geometry, ethics, and dialectic with Aristotle, and Erastus and Coriscus (two colleagues from Plato's Academy). Under the influence of his teachers, Hermias, an avid student, softened his tyrannical rule and introduced new laws and reforms that followed the precepts of the Academy.

Hermias expressed his admiration and friendship for Aristotle by offering him his niece and adopted daughter, Pythias, as a wife. Aristotle and Pythias had one daughter who was also named Pythias. Hermias also gave Aristotle money to start a new school at Assos in the Troad. It is doubtful that Aristotle wrote anything during this period, but he continued his scientific studies on marine life there. Aristotle left Assos after a year or so and founded another school on the island of Lesbos. He was only on Lesbos a few years when, in 343/342 BCE, Philip II invited Aristotle to Pella to tutor his thirteen-year-old son Alexander.

Aristotle tutored Alexander for three years and then moved back to Stagira. Philip II had totally destroyed Stagira eight years earlier, but he had the town rebuilt and repopulated in Aristotle's honor. Aristotle lived there until 335/334 BCE and then returned to Athens. In Athens Aristotle leased a house with an adjoining covered walk (peripatos) attached, and established a school called the Lyceum. Aristotle used to teach while walking with students under the peripatos and, hence, his followers came to be called the peripatetics.

After Alexander died in 323 BCE, some Athenians became suspicious of Aristotle because he was Alexander's friend. Resentful factions in Athens accused Aristotle of impiety—the same charge leveled against Socrates. Aristotle retired to Chalcis, his mother's birthplace, where he died in 322 BCE at the age of sixty-two. One tradition says that Aristotle left Athens because he did not want Athenians to sin against philosophy twice.

Aristotle on Authority
There is no difficulty in distinguishing the various kinds of authority; they have been often defined already in discussions outside the school. The rule of a master, although the slave by nature and the master by nature have in reality the same interests, is nevertheless exercised primarily with a view to the interest of the master, but accidentally considers the slave, since, if the slave perish, the rule of the master perishes with him. On the other hand, the government of a wife and children and of a household, which we have called household management, is exercised in the first instance for the good of the governed or for the common good of both parties, but essentially for the good of the governed, as we see to be the case in medicine, gymnastic, and the arts in general, which are only accidentally concerned with the good of the artists themselves. For there is no reason why the trainer may not sometimes practice gymnastics, and the helmsman is always one of the crew. The trainer or the helmsman considers the good of those committed to his care. But, when he is one of the persons taken care of, he accidentally participates in the advantage, for the helmsman is also a sailor, and the trainer becomes one of those in training. And so in politics: when the state is framed upon the principle of equality and likeness, the citizens think that they ought to hold office by turns. Formerly, as is natural, every one would take his turn of service; and then again, somebody else would look after his interest, just as he, while in office, had looked after theirs. But nowadays, for the sake of the advantage which is to be gained from the public revenues and from office, men want to be always in office. One might imagine that the rulers, being sickly, were only kept in health while they continued in office; in that case we may be sure that they would be hunting after places. The conclusion is evident: that governments which have a regard to the common interest are constituted in accordance with strict principles of justice, and are therefore true forms; but those which regard only the interest of the rulers are all defective and perverted forms, for they are despotic, whereas a state is a community of freemen.

Aristotle. (350 BCE). Politics. Book III, Part VI. Translated by Benjamin Jowett. Internet Classics Archive. Retrieved September 10, 2003 What was Lost
Aristotle, like all members of Plato's academy, wrote dialogues. They are all lost to us, except for a few fragments and commentaries on them by other ancient writers such as Cicero, Plutarch, and Diogenes Laertius. Aristotle also wrote poetry. Scholars mourn the loss of Aristotle's account of 158 constitutions of cities and tribes. We are, however, fortunate to have the one remaining part of this work, the Constitution of Athens.

In his surviving works Aristotle says practically nothing about his famous student Alexander. One of the great losses to leadership scholars is a memoir that Aristotle wrote late in life called Alexander or On Colonization. As Werner Jaeger tells us, “this work would have introduced us to the late period when the royal pupil [Alexander] was breaking and making empires in Asia, while the philosopher followed the dizzy flight of his fortunes with anxious eyes” (1934, 259). Also lost is a book called Monarchy, which Aristotle wrote after he tutored Alexander. Ancient commentators tell us that Aristotle tried to give a new spiritual and ethical content to the idea of monarchy in this book.

The Relationship of Ethics to Politics
Aristotle's books the Nichomachean Ethics and Politics are of particular interest to leadership scholars. These books are intimately related to each other. His book on ethics tells us about virtues, human behavior, and the ends that people seek in life. His Politics is a systematic and empirical study of how various societies are organized. To understand what Aristotle has to say about leadership, we first need to look at what he says about ethics.

Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics (named after his father, Nicomachus) begins with the proposition that all actions aim toward the good and that politics is the master science of the good. He says, “Thus it follows that the end of politics is the good for man. For even if the good is the same for the individual and the state, the good of the state clearly is the greater and more perfect thing to attain and to safeguard” (Aristotle 1094b, 7, 1962a, 4). But since each action aims at a different good, so we have to look for a good that is self-sufficient. That good is happiness and happiness means different things for different people. Aristotle uses the word eudaiemonia for happiness. Eudaiemonia has a slightly different meaning than the English word happiness. Aristotle tells us that a happy life is where one lives well, acts well, and people flourish. The two best forms of life, according to Aristotle, are private lives of contemplation and public lives of politics. Since happiness or flourishing is the ultimate purpose of all action, it is the end of life and of politics. Aristotle's idea of the state as a place where people can pursue individual happiness appears almost two thousand years later in the American Declaration of Independence (1776).

Aristotle believed that to live well people must have virtue (areté). Aristotle's notion of virtue is different from the way people use the word today. A virtue is an excellence that one needs to do something well. Doctors need one set of virtues, soldiers need another set, musicians another, and so forth. All people must have moral virtues, which are rational choices that we make with the intended desire to do good. Virtues are also habits, but not in the rote sense of the term. Aristotle says that virtues are a hexis, which means “a having,” “a holding,” or being in some condition. It is a characteristic of the agent. Aristotle accounts for the ability of an agent to practice virtues based on the mean. Since virtues are concerned with emotions as well as actions, a virtuous person knows the proper degree of how to act and to feel.

Aristotle says, “To obtain the right training for virtue from youth up is difficult, unless one has been brought up under the right laws” (Nichomachean Ethics 10.1179b32, Aristotle 1962a, 296). People learn virtues from laws, society, and from role models in society. According to Aristotle, people are political animals and moral acts can only take place in the context of a society. Hence, a hermit is incapable of acting virtuously. The Nichomachean Ethics begins and ends with a discussion of politics because Aristotle believed that the moral state is necessary for virtue and for people to flourish as human beings.

Thoughts on Leadership
Political theorists from St. Augustine to Thomas Jefferson are indebted to the Politics. Since Aristotle's focus is on examining the best forms of government, he pays less attention to the leader as an individual. He does, however, talk about the importance of thoughtful followers or citizens and the leader/follower relationship. Aristotle notes, “Practical wisdom is the only excellence peculiar to the ruler: it would seem that all other excellences must equally belong to ruler and subject. The excellence of the subject is certainly not wisdom, but only true opinion; he may be compared to the maker of a flute, while his master is like the flute player” (Politics 1277b28–30, Aristotle 1984, 2027).

In Politics Book III, Aristotle examines six types of rule. They are the rule by one, by the few, and by the many. The next three are variations on these, based on whether leaders rule for the common good or for their self-interest. A leader who rules in his self-interest is tyranny. A group of people who rule in their own interest, the interest of the wealthy, is oligarchy. When the many rule in their self-interest, the interests of the poor, it is democracy. Like leadership scholars today, Aristotle realized that different groups and situations required different kinds of leadership. He says, “there is by nature both a justice and an advantage appropriate to the rule of a master, another to kingly rule, another to constitutional rule; but there is none naturally appropriate to tyranny” (Politics 1287b37–40, Aristotle 1984, 2043–44).

Aristotle is against the one ruler who rules over everything or what he calls a pambasileia or “allover ruler.” He argues that it is not possible for even the most ethical and talented person to run everything well. Aristotle observes that rulers cannot do their jobs without good advisors or subrulers. These advisors should be friends who are equals, not subordinates to the ruler. Aristotle says friendship is about concern for others, mutual interests, and joint activity. When good people are friends, “they become better as they are active together and correct one another: from the mould of the other each takes the imprint of the traits he likes, whence the saying: ‘Noble things from noble people'” (Nichomachean Ethics 1172a12–14, Aristotle 1962a, 272–3). Aristotle believed when leaders rely on such friends as advisors, their rule is likely to be just.

Aristotle argues that aristocracy or rule by the best people (judged by merit) is the most desirable regime, but he offers some caveats to this kind of rule. First, they need good advisors and the help of citizens, who are not mindless followers. Second, leaders need good laws and should be subject to those laws. Ideally the most gifted and virtuous people should rule, but Aristotle is also willing to settle for leaders who are not the best and the brightest, as long as they are just and rule under just laws.

Criticisms and Influence
Aristotle is most criticized for his defense of slavery in Book I of the Politics and his inclusion of slavery as part of the best regime. Out of all the arguments in the Politics, this is the weakest. Aristotle argues that some people are best disposed to be masters and others are natural slaves who benefit from having masters. As Mary P. Nichols points out, however, Aristotle also acknowledges, “that it is doubtful that any slave system enslaves only those who deserve to be enslaved, and even more doubtful whether those who deserve to be slaves would even be useful as slaves” (1992, 24). Aristotle expresses certain reservations about slavery in his work, but never morally condemns it. He also seems to abandon ethics in books IV through VI of the Politics. In these books he does not seem concerned with some of the unethical aspects of winning favor and staying in power.

Aristotle's influence in the arts, sciences, and politics shows up in the work of a variety of great thinkers. Among them are Cicero, St. Thomas Aquinas, Dante, Thomas Hobbes, Machiavelli, Francis Bacon, Thomas Jefferson, and al Farabi, the tenth-century Muslim philosopher and founder of the Islamic philosophic tradition. Aristotle's physics and cosmology dominated the Western world until the early Renaissance, despite the fact that they were wrong. Perhaps his greatest legacy is his method of observation, data collection, and analysis that became the bedrock of the sciences and the social sciences.

It is difficult to sum up the life and work of someone like Aristotle. He not only possessed a brilliant, hungry mind, but he must have had considerable leadership skills to organize schools, influence leaders, and animate his ideas for his students and future generations of scholars.

Joanne B. Ciulla 10.4135/9781412952392.n15 See also
Philosophy
Plato
Further Reading Aristotle. (1962a). Nichomachean ethics (M. Ostwald, Ed. & Trans.). Indianapolis, IN: Library of Liberal Arts. Aristotle. (1962b). Politics (T. A. Sinclair, Trans.). New York: Penguin Books. Aristotle. (1984). The complete works of Aristotle, Vols. I & II (J. Barnes, Ed., and B. Jowett, Trans.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Aristotle. (1950). The Constitution of Athens and related texts (K. von Fritz, & E. Kapp, Eds. & Trans.). New York: Hafner Publishing Co. Grene, M. (1963). A portrait of Aristotle. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Jaeger, W. (1934). Aristotle: Fundamentals of the history of his development. Oxford: Claredon Press. Joachim, H. H. (1970). Aristotle. The Nichomachean ethics: A commentary. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Keyt, D., & Miller, F. D. (1991). A companion to Aristotle's politics. Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell. Mahdi, M.. (1962). Alfarabi's philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Nichols, M. (1992). Citizens and statesmen: A study of Aristotle's politics. Savage, MD: Rowman & Littlefeld. Plutarch. (1962). Eight great lives. (C. A. Robinson, Jr., Ed., and J. Dryden, Trans.). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Schmitt, C. B. (1983). Aristotle and the Renaissance. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Simpson, P. L. P. (1998). A philosophical commentary on the politics of Aristotle. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

Source : Encyclopedia of Leadership George R. Goethals & Georgia J. Sorenson & James MacGregor Burns