A touchstone in Western debates about society and government, the
Politics is Aristotle's classic work on the nature of
political community. Here, he argues that people band together into
political communities to secure a good and self-sufficient life. He
discusses the merits and defects of various regimes or ways of
organizing political community--democracy in particular--and in the
process examines such subjects as slavery, economics, the family,
citizenship, justice, and revolution.Peter Simpson offers a new
translation of Aristotle's text from the ancient Greek. He renders
the
Politics into an English version that is accurate,
readable, and in certain difficult passages, original. His
innovative analytical division of the whole text, with headings and
accompanying summaries, makes clear the progression and unity of
the argument--a helpful feature for students or readers unfamiliar
with Aristotle's studied brevity and often elliptical style. Books
7 and 8 are repositioned--a move supported by Aristotle's own words
and much scholarly opinion--to restore the work's logical
organization and coherence. Finally, Simpson places the
Politics in its proper philosophical context by beginning
the text with the last chapter of Aristotle's
Nicomachean
Ethics, which he sees as an introduction to what follows.