Politics by Aristotle Mere Life and Good Life - Essay Example

Politics by Aristotle “Mere Life” and “Good Life” According to Aristotle, mere life refers to life that has its goals that are outside itself. For instance, to satisfy the daily life demands, one has to struggle to meet the ends. Mere life calls for its citizens who are in a state to presuppose the demands of their biological needs. With this kind of life, the citizens end up forgetting the sphere of necessity and join the sphere of freewill. On the other hand, good life according to Aristotle is the idea of citizens in a particular state sharing deliberately what they own through their language, decent deeds and freedom to choose what they want.

According to Aristotle, freedom is affected by the constrains that arises in our normal life. On the other hand good life is positive in one way as it empowers the youth to be in a position to take leadership roles and accept to be ruled. Through this, we can be in a position to give our priorities right or wrong. According to Aristotle, good life comprises varied ideals in its ethical concerns. In philosophy, there is broad attachment of ethical virtues to external produce. What affects the public people’s life, are the basic ethical virtues.

These include ambition, and courage. In achieving these virtues, then it calls for need to be politically active and take political roles and getting involved in court proceedings. External goods refers to useful factors that accompany ethical virtues like power, honor and wealth. The best source of happiness in human beings is friends and family members (Aristotle 23). Aristotle defines politics in various scopes of participation in politics. Good life does not necessarily root from citizenship.

To maintain a good life, one needs to create an atmosphere that is politically stable. A politically stable community is a community that has life and property security. In life, if one is denied or has no access to political nature, then it implies that you are staying alone or staying in a community that does not recognize importance of the politics in life (Aristotle 76). Human beings differ and some may decide to live a political society despite the law and order and moral law that the society provides and the opportunity that is engaged in participating in politics.

Household arises out of the essential natural instincts that demands reproduction and material survival. This is because Aristotle did not put more emphasis in politics and he does not relegate household values. Household is not confiding to the standards of meeting the natural instincts. Thus for a household to be developed fully, it has to meet the standards of mere and good life. Therefore, the major role of house is being a means and an end at the same time. In terms of virtue, household is meant to be educative and offering training to the children (Aristotle 87-88).

Thus good is an integral part in a household. In general, we do not take Aristotle to be the proponent of a fully polis life. According to him, a good man was the one who could live under an absolute king without worry or fear but contented with the rule. He is also seen as the major proponent of the Hellenistic philosophies that withdrew politics and later on, he ended the classical period. For instance, the denial of women the ability to participate in politics is not an exclusion of women from participating in other human activity (Aristotle 104-105).

In conclusion, Aristotle has focused on the differences between mere life and good life. He defines good life in terms of deeds, freedom and language plus their choices. In addition, he asserts that mere life calls for the attention of and demands of the biological life. Thus, we come to the knowledge behind what good life entails. He prefers that for human beings to be good, they must be willing to operate under any rule of the governance. Aristotle political philosophy creates a basis for modern politics.

Leaders are in a position to assess the demands of their subjects and know how to deal with them.Works CitedAristotle. Politics: A Treatise on Government: A Powerful Work by Aristotle (Timeless Classic Books). New York, NY: Create Space Publishers, 2010.