Politeia and the historial account of the polis in Aristotle

Aristotle’s conception of the politeia (regime, constitution) as a distinctive feature of the historical experience of the polis is a key aspect in his treatment of politics. Part of this discussion deals with Aristotle’s attempt to locate and define the qualities of the politeia as the most valid c...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Poddighe, Elisabetta
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repositorio:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:idus.us.es:11441/142038
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/11441/142038
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Politeia’s intelligibility
Polis’ history
Political justice
Aristotle on the unity of the polis
Cleisthenes’ reform
Inteligibilidad de la politeia
Historia de la polis
Justicia política
Aristóteles acerca de la unidad de la ciudad
Reforma de Clístenes
Aristóteles acerca de la historia y la poesía
Descripción
Sumario:Aristotle’s conception of the politeia (regime, constitution) as a distinctive feature of the historical experience of the polis is a key aspect in his treatment of politics. Part of this discussion deals with Aristotle’s attempt to locate and define the qualities of the politeia as the most valid criteria for a historical account of the polis. These are the qualities I intend to address in this chapter. In section 1, I consider the role of the politeia in Aristotle’s account of the history of the polisafter it deviates from the monarchic model of government. In section 2, I tackle the problem of the politeia’s intelligibility inside the polis understood as a “community of interpretation”. Finally, in section 3, I address the politeia as an expression of the unity of the polis and discuss its quality to unify actions (praxeis) aimed at a common goal. Here I argue that it is the politeia’s “unifying quality” that highlights the causal connections underlying actions that regard the polis. The politeia helps to unmask historical causation between the actions. Within the context of the politeia, the historical account of the polis connects actions which outside the framework of the politeia do not appear to be so closely related.