Cicero, in his work "De Re Publica" wrote that he didn't install his own, new, invented the terms, but reproduce from memory the conversation between renowned wisest men of his country. In turn, these" famous men": Scipio Africanus, Laelius and others - have repeatedly resorted to the wisdom of the ancient Greek philosophers, referring to Plato and Aristotle.
Creativity Plato to the present day remains at the focus of researchers of different directions. For historians in particular, his works are interesting primarily as a reflection of the time period when they were written. Aristotle also belongs to the philosophers whose work has an important place in the history of European philosophy. Pupil of Plato's Academy, he refuses many views of the teacher. He is best known as the creator of a new school - Lyceum, as a teacher of Alexander the Great, the famous conqueror of antiquity.
For Plato out of the political crisis in Greece was in the construction of a policy on a perfect start, including changes in economic, political and social spheres. The main sources on this subject are the two most extensive and fundamental writings of Plato - "The Republic" and "The Laws." It is written in the form of a dialogue - a conversation of several persons (these are real people who lived in Greece at the time) - and consists of ten books. Trying to solve the problems of the Greece, Plato offers his concept of conversion of the state, with particular attention to resolving the most pressing social problems, which in turn is reflected in his ideas about changing the social structure of the old policy. Greek polis is a closed civil community, hereditary affiliation which gave a number of advantages.
According to Plato, philosophers are the best people in the state, who acts can governance by virtue of their ability. Therefore, Plato creates the third estate, which occupies a privileged position in its commission policy and calls them the "guardians".
After making the necessary changes in the social structure of his ideal policies, Plato aims to ensure the cohesion and stability of the new teams in polis. That Plato gave considerable importance, because in the policy during the crisis dominated disunity, individualism and the idea of cosmopolitanism. A joint participation in hostilities bore the idea of protecting the native group, their families, their property that was steeped in the spirit of patriotism (as military service was a matter of honor of the ancient citizens, non-citizens do not participate in hostilities at all or had only auxiliary character). As, however, the participation in the general case, in politics, in the management determines general, the same for all targets. This was explained by the fact that the citizens of the polis have had in the spirit of collectivism, which gave each member a sense of unity with the policy of the civil community, as determined by the predominance of public over private interests.
Plato writes about the happiness of people:
"the intention of the legislator who did not aim at making any one class in the State happy above the rest; the happiness was to be in the whole State, and he held the citizens together by persuasion and necessity, making them benefactors of the State, and therefore benefactors of one another; to this end he created them, not to please themselves, but to be his instruments in binding up the State."
In presenting his theory of the perfect system, Aristotle, primarily comes from the fact that in this doctrine contains nothing impossible. Background to creation of the model, the best policy is, according to Aristotle, is a certain amount of the population, defined territory sizes, convenient position relative to the sea. The theoretical construction of the ideal polis is the ultimate challenge that confronts an Aristotle in "Politics." Aristotle examines the concept of the citizen, at times referring to the practice of the Greek policies. His conclusion Aristotle has formulated as follows: there are several varieties of the citizen. A citizen is primarily one who has civil rights and he also has taken up the question of the relation of virtue to virtue true citizen of a good man. Aristotle describes in detail the elements that necessary for the existence of the state, distinguishing elements of the quality and quantity of elements: elements of a quality he means freedom, education and nobility of birth, and by the number of elements - numerical superiority mass.
Aristotle defines a citizen as someone who is involved in the court and in the governance. This is an absolute concept of the citizen. Calling it an absolute notion of the citizen, Aristotle seems to want to say that this is true for all forms of political system and the difference between them is not so much in the concept of the citizen, but in the fact on which social classes of the population are distributed over the right to participate in government and in court. Citizen enjoys civil honors. Aristotle argues the need to preserve private property, justifying it by the fact that the demand for property is peculiar to man by nature. Recognizing the value of the property in the mutual relations of equality between citizens, Aristotle refuses to see it as a panacea for all social evils.
Aristotle has contested Plato's theory of the higher ideal of unity, to which are dedicated to all kinds of property of citizens, which introduces the common price, etc. On the contrary, in the State he sees a heterogeneous set of components, the interests of its constituent classes and groups: farmers, artisans, merchants, wage workers, the military and the "servants of his property to the state," then the officials and judges. This division of labor is not the result of Aristotle historical process, but the result of natural instincts and capable people. However, state constitutions depend on the nature and needs of the peoples.
Analyzing the project Plato, Aristotle emphasizes the difficulty of its implementation in practice. Aristotle has argued that there is a difference between society and the state. According to him, there are various forms of associations of people: family, village, country. The basis of the state is a special type of social relations - relations of domination and subordination, which are defined by Aristotle as a political relationship. The state is thus associated with the exercise of political power, domination of power.
Plato, in essence, creating a utopia, his project was not likely to be realized. Aristotle has repelled by the analysis described their forms of government policies, their advantages and disadvantages. According to Aristotle, there are three types of correct forms of government in the state: the monarchy, where power is vested in hereditary rulers, aristocracy, ruled by the best, democracy, where power is exercised by the citizens of the state. However, in the opinion of Aristotle, the lack of "correct" forms of government is that they tend to degenerate into the "wrong" form, where there is vice and crime.
According to Aristotle aristocracy, monarchy, tyranny, oligarchy and democracy have disadvantages: "For tyranny is a kind of monarchy which has in view the interest of the monarch only; oligarchy has in view the interest of the wealthy; democracy, of the needy: none of them the common good of all."
Aristotle traces the relationship between forms of political organization. Oligarchy - government by the few, becoming one of power, turns into despotism, and becoming the authority of the majority - in democracy. Kingdom degenerates into an aristocracy or polity, that - in an oligarchy, that - in the tyranny, and tyranny to democracy. Thus, Aristotle has put forward the idea of forming a "mixed state" successfully combines the advantages of democracy, aristocracy and monarchy. Aristotle called this form of state "polity."
Polity is the power of the majority. But the only common thing to majority is military virtue, so the republic consists of people who have arms, republican society consists of "a warlike multitude able to rule and to obey in turn by a law", and the positions in government accrue to the poor, if only they were worth. Each member of the majority is worse every member of the aristocratic minority, but in general most of the better minority. Most have more reason to claim power, because, based on the personal dignity, wealth or origin, then there is always the most worthy, the richest, the most noble, so worthy of domination, the rich, noble unstable, the power of the majority of more self-sufficient.
The idea of a "mixed state" has gained popularity and influenced, as scientists believe, on the formation of the idea of separation of powers into legislative, executive and judicial.
Summing up our arguments about the "average" is constructed in the reasoning of Aristotle, we can conclude: Polity, "average" state system, which should serve as a support to middle-income citizens, represented by Aristotle not only of theoretical interest. Thus, the ideas of Aristotle in his work “The Politics” are more realistic than utopian ideas in Plato’s “The Republic.”
Works Cited
Aristotle. Aristotle's "Politics": Second Edition. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press, 2013.
Cicero. The Republic and The Laws. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Plato. The Republic Of Plato: Second Edition. New York: Basic Books, 1991. New York: Basic Books, 1991.
