New Political Science Handbook

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NEW POLITICAL SCIENCE HANDBOOK

To facilitate understanding of the text, after the presentation of each idea or block of ideas by Aristotle, the reader will find brief comments preceded by the expression influences on Modernity. We know that in these times it is increasingly difficult to try to understand the world around us. But the speed of our time does not avoid political problems, does not eliminate the challenges of coexistence. The current relevance of much of Aristotle's political thought is an indication that the essence of the human phenomenon is always the same. Therefore, through contact with Aristotle's work, we invite the reader to delve into his own existence, into the difficulties he faces in achieving good living, into the human drama of collective existence. It is an invitation to follow the inscription on the temple of Apollo: Reader, "know thyself."

2. Politics as the pursuit of happiness

"Man is by nature a social animal." This is probably the most famous and most repeated statement in Aristotle's book Politics. However, this assertion encompasses a much larger number of concerns than it might seem at first glance. After all, Aristotle understood Politics as a dimension of coexistence that is much more complex than the idea we normally have of the political phenomenon as something related to the search for and exercise of power. In fact, in order to truly understand his intent, it is necessary to make a brief mention of another of his works: Nicomachean Ethics.

Initially, it is essential to remember that Aristotle considered happiness as a way of acting and not as the result of certain actions. In other words, happiness is not a consequence, but an activity, a way of life or an example of good living. According to the Nicomachean Ethics, however, it is not enough to discover only how the individual should proceed to achieve happiness, since he lives in society and is subject to all the implications of his collective existence. This is the reason that leads us to the intersection of the two works. "The fact of placing individual happiness and political happiness side by side", writes Eduardo Bittar (...) would be an indication of the

5. Aristotle, Politics, p. 15.

p. 7. 6. Cf. Mário da Gama Kury, "Introduction" to Politics, by Aristotle, cit.,

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assumption of Platonism (idealism) in step with a more accentuated realism","

Furthermore, the Greek philosopher divides Politics into two parts: ethics and politics as we understand it. The purpose of the first is to obtain happiness; the second, in turn, must question what form of government and what institutions and laws can guarantee us a good life. In this sense, Politics "is practical in the broadest sense of the word, since it studies not only what happiness is (...), but also the way to obtain it (...). At the same time, it is practical in the strictest sense, since it leads to the demonstration that happiness is not the result of actions,