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Aristotelian thinkers are followers of Aristotle (384 - 322 BCE). Aristotle had a fundamental impact on the political thought and practice of Greek and Roman antiquity, not least through his teaching of rhetoric: the skill of persuading people when neither logical proof nor compelling empirical evidence are available in argument. Aristotle\'s political thought has also exercised a profound long-term impact on Western political philosophy, not least through his criticism of Platonist Utopianism. Aristotle devised the first typology of political régimes, distinguishing them by whether they were ruled by (a) a single ruler, (b) a few rulers, or (c) many rulers; and by whether the rulers ruled (1) in the interests of all or (2) in their own interests. This typology produces six types of régime, three good forms (a.1) monarchy, (b.1) aristocracy and (c.1) polity (or constitutional government); and three bad forms (a.2) tyranny, (b.2) oligarchy and (c.2) democracy. Later Aristotle distinguished Asiatic despotism as a peculiarly Oriental form of government. Aristotle supported a mixed constitution, which combined the best elements of kingship, aristocracy and popular government, which he called ‘polity’. Aristotle\'s political thought anticipated modern functionalism. He argued that political life was biologically rooted and had natural forms; states should take natural forms, which he believed meant that they should be relatively small, and that individuals and social classes, particularly slaves, had natural functions to perform. These assumptions were used by him and subsequent thinkers to justify political institutions as natural which we now think of as abhorrent: such as slavery and the rule of men in domestic households. BO\'L
Further reading Aristotle The Politics; The Art of Rhetoric. |
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