The Potentiality of 'Politics' in Aristotle: The Logos and Meaningful Speech among Men

Year 2019, Volume: 9 Issue: 1, 75 - 88, 28.03.2019

Efe Baştürk

https://doi.org/10.18491/beytulhikme.1452

Abstract

In Aristotelian political philosophy, the basic idea and form of “politics” is structured on a specific “ability” referring to speech. According to Aristotle, man is much more a political animal than the other beings in nature because he has the logos, which refers to “meaningful speech”. In this study, I will discuss the Aristotelian political philosophy including the logos and sources of meaningful speech by referring to some arguments that are discussed in his other biological and ethical works. In those works, Aristotle discusses the “ability to speak” in a framework of the structure of the “phone” which is distinguishably connected to political animality in the Politics. For Aristotle, man is more political than other beings because he has natural and intrinsic tendencies that will make him political. The aim of this study is to claim that the political philosophy of Aristotle should be discussed within the arguments of his biological, metaphysical and ethical assumptions. 

Keywords

Phone, logos, political animality, Aristotle, ethics

References

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