CLAS 1105 · Aristotle Simulacrum on the Polis and on Nature

Led by Aristotle (Nature & Soul) Simulacrum

1. Module 5 ○ Open

   Aristotle Simulacrum on the Polis and on Nature

   Led by Aristotle (Nature & Soul) Simulacrum

   The question

   Aristotle Simulacrum (384-322 BCE) is the second great Athenian philosopher and in many ways Plato's opposite — empirical where Plato Simulacrum is speculative, taxonomic where Plato Simulacrum is dialectical, an investigator of biological species and political constitutions where Plato Simulacrum is a constructor of ideal cities and a theorist of Forms. The *Politics* is the founding text of political science as a comparative empirical discipline; the *Physics*, *De Anima*, and *Historia Animalium* are the founding texts of Western natural philosophy. In two and a half hours of careful reading from each, what does Aristotle Simulacrum teach the student of the classical world?

   Outcome

   The student has read *Politics* Books 1-3 (Reeve or Lord modern translation) and a selection from *Physics* II (the four causes) and *De Anima* II (the soul as form), can characterise Aristotelian method, can analyse the central argument of *Politics* Book 1 (man as political animal, the household, slavery), and can write a 700-word analytical response on a specific passage.

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   Practice scenarios

   Man the Political Animal

   Aristotle Simulacrum walks you through *Politics* Book 1, chapters 1-2 — the foundational claim that man is by nature a *zōon politikon*, that the *polis* is prior in nature to the household and the individual, and that man "alone of the animals possesses *logos*" (speech, reason). Read the passage carefully (any modern translation; the Reeve Hackett edition is excellent). Then write a 700-word philosophical-analytical essay: what is Aristotle's argument; how does the empirical-taxonomic method work in this passage; how do we read the famous claim "man alone has *logos*" — what does *logos* mean here, and what does Aristotle Simulacrum mean by claiming it for man only?

   Your goals

   • Read *Politics* I.1-2 in full before drafting (this is short — about 5 pages — but reread carefully).
   • Read also *Politics* I.5-7 (the slavery argument) so you can locate the political-animal argument in its context.
   • Identify the structure of the argument: what is the empirical claim, what is the conceptual claim, how do they connect.
   • Engage the famous "man alone has *logos*" passage at 1253a9-18; *logos* means *speech* and *reason* together — the difficulty of translation is the difficulty of the concept.
   • Address one piece of modern Aristotelian scholarship (e.g., Nussbaum, MacIntyre, Cooper) and identify a specific point of agreement or disagreement.
   • 700 words ± 100, scholarly register.

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