Aristotle on Plato’s Republic VIII-IX: Politics v. 12, 1316a1-b27

Polis 35 (2):374-400 (2018)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Toward the end of Politics V. 12, Aristotle criticizes Plato’s discussion of political change in Republic VIII-IX. Scholars often reject Aristotle’s criticism, especially because it portrays Plato’s discussion, allegedly unfairly, as developing a historically testable theory. I argue that Aristotle’s criticism is adequate, and that the seriousness with which he considers Plato’s account of political change as an alternative to his own is both warranted and instructive. First, apart from criticizing Plato’s account for its historical inaccuracies, Aristotle also exposes theoretical insufficiencies and internal inconsistencies within it. Second, Aristotle’s criticisms of historical inaccuracies in Plato’s discussion of political change are not misdirected, since there are reasons to think that Plato does intend that discussion to accord with the historical facts.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Aristotle’s Criticism of Plato’s Republic.Robert Mayhew - 1997 - Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Aristotle's Peirastic Treatment of the Republic.Robert Gallagher - 2011 - Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 93 (1):1-23.
Σxολh.J. L. Stocks - 1936 - Classical Quarterly 30 (3-4):177-.
Σxολh.J. L. Stocks - 1936 - Classical Quarterly 30 (3-4):177-187.
Aristotle on the Republic.R. Stalley - 1999 - Polis 16 (1-2):143-149.

Analytics

Added to PP
2019-05-23

Downloads
20 (#656,480)

6 months
1 (#1,042,085)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Mor Segev
University of South Florida

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references