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eassy on aristotle

Ancient Political Thought Throughout the Republic it becomes obvious that Plato believes that the best city-state has the highest level of sharing and unity while in the Politics, Aristotle believes that too much unity can deunify a city-state. The "unity" argument is a prime example of Platos way of thinking aboutthe nature of a community, and Aristotles criticism of this unity gives insight into Aristotles way of thinking about his views on the nature of thecommunity. In order to understand Aristotles attack on Platos "unity," it must be understood that for Aristotle, unity is synonymous with the levelof sharing in a community. In Politics II 1, Aristotle begins his assessment by stating that, "We must begin, at the natural starting point of thisinvestigation. For all citizens much share everything, or nothing, or some things but not others" (Pol. 1260b36-39).There are three possibilities in Aristotles argument regarding how much citizens should share in common: Nothing, everything, and some thingsbut not others. Similar to Platos style of forming an argument, Aristotle states the problem and all the possible outcomes. He then proceeds todisprove two of them, thereby making the last remaining possibility the correct one by means of deduction. Aristotle argues that it would be "evidently impossible" for a community to have nothing in common (1260b39-40). A communitys citizens allshare the same location, and they are all organized by a common constitution. Therefore, the first possibility can be ruled out. Aristotle attacksthe two remaining possibilities simultaneously. He asks, "is it better for a city-state that is to be well managed to share everything possible? Oris it better to share some things but not others" (1261a2-4)? Plato would argue that it is best for a city-state to share everything, including womenand children, with all members of a society. In addressing the remainin...

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