Aristotle Utilitarianism Essay

Next, it is important to see who is a citizen. For Aristotle (2013), a citizen depends on the regime, is not who is physical present, not those taking part in the justice systems and not those receiving benefits, but those who are entitled to hold office: “Who the citizen is, then, is evident from these things. Whoever is entitled to share in an office involving deliberation or decision is, we can now say, a citizen in this city; and the city is the multitude of such persons that is adequate with a view to a self-sufficient life, to speak simply” (p.64). Many would disagree about what qualifies one as being a citizen: “ 'citizen ' is used without reference to the criterion of legal eligibility which plays a central role and is instead used

The city is higher than the individual and should be looked at as the greater good. This is a common misconception in today’s age because people look at politics in order to try and find what is going to be the best for them, not for their city. This view can be easily confused for utilitarianism, but in no way is Aristotle a utilitarian. Aristotle never states to not to focus on the individual. The goal of each different thing is to achieve excellence in what it is; city or individual. There are parts in a unity that have to make up a whole, but without those parts there would be no whole and each of those parts are extremely important and should focus on excellence, to make the whole better. The purpose of the government in the city, is noble actions of its citizens; each citizen should go for excellence and everything should be excellent in what it is: “A city is the community of families and villages in a complete and sufficient life. This, we assert, is living happily and finely. The political community must be regarded, therefore, as being for the sake of noble actions, not for the sake of living together” (Aristotle, 2013, p.77). One should look to the virtue of the part in relation to the virtue of the whole. The government pushes the individuals to be virtuous and excellent. If the regime of

Aristotle divides knowledge into two main categories: theoretical and practical. For Aristotle, there are two subcategories for practical knowledge, which are productive and right action. For productive knowledge, the goal of the knowledge would be the product and for knowledge of right action, the goal would be the action itself or prudence. Knowledge of right action is where Aristotle put politics and that politics depends on prudence. Aristotle focuses on virtue and justice and how both are crucial in order to have the best regime. He further goes on to state that prudence can only be used by those who rule, otherwise you do not have it. Aristotle relies heavily on the idea of knowledge and virtue and how it impacts the regime. For knowledge and to be in accord with the city, the virtue of the citizen is knowledge of how to rule and how to be