Influence of Aristotle on John Stuart Mills and Karl Marxs Studies - Essay Example

 Political Science Introduction According to Aristotle, all the action that we perform has an end, and everybody is determined to live a good life. The good life in this case refers to happiness, Flourishing, or Eudaimonia. Flourishing is when a human is enjoying the life. The best life is where human activity is excellent. Aristotle believes that all humans are determined to flourish. It is the appropriate and desired end of all human actions. To understand how something functions, you need to understand its nature. Aristotle provides four different human nature aspects. Aristotle is usually quoted saying “Man is a political creature.” The meaning of Aristotle has a deeper understanding as compared to the known translation. The quote from Aristotle that says “is a rational being who lives in societies?” provides four different aspects of human nature. The first aspect is referring to human as physical beings (to mean human are animals). According to Aristotle, Physical beings require rest, nourishment, exercise, and many others that help in keeping their body to function properly. The second is that the human being referred as emotional beings (to mean they are animals). What differentiate plants from animals, as argued by Aristotle, is that animals have desires, wants, urges, and reactions. These do not exist in plants. Human being can recognize what they want in the world, and they also possess the power of volition get what they want. Furthermore human can avoid what they dislike. These wants can be complicated for humans, however at the long run we all have wants and needs that are obtained from the underlying sources. The third is human are a social being (this is because they live in groups). Human must function and live in various societies. No man can survive by himself and human majorly performs well only in social settings. Human social nature goes in hand with our emotional nature; such that the wants and needs required by human can only be attained through the social nature of human. For example, human were beings that flourished as hermits, Friendly and trust cooperation needs will not be nearly so urgent. The fourth is that the human is a rational being. To the Greeks, most of the cultures, including the current ones that have made humans human were our rationality. Human are expressive, creative, able to obey reasons and knowledge-seeking. Most of the time human being may not follow reasons, and most of the time may not want to exercise their minds. However, the central part of human existence relates their nature of being a rational animal. Aristotle argues that human beings are social being because they show high productivity when they are together. In this regard, no man can survive without the help of the other. This thought is also used by Mill as he argues that democracy functions well depending on the strength of the social capital. Social capital refers to connection between the individuals. This connection is between the individual and it is important in allowing efficiency in the government functions. Human being a social creature enables common problems such as crime to be addressed (Paul, 233). Aristotle is also applied by John Stuart Mill; this is seen as Mill believed that the morally right action has as tendency to reduce misery and increase happiness. However, Mill further explained that all pleasures are not of equal value. He ascertains that however much life seems perfect; it entails deeper satisfactions of personal dignity and spiritual perfection and the quest for beauty, truth and order. Mill Sounds Aristotelian when he tells his readers to satisfy their elevated faculties in reference to their animal appetites to struggle to develop excellent mind and character. Mills subtle analysis of the nature of happiness helps to raise the utilitarian theory of value above the simplistic hedonism level. John Stuart Mill argued that happiness is best obtained by actively pursuing useful ends. When helping others to prosper in life, we should be very careful of imposing our idea of happiness. According to Mill, the principle of utility could be proved by the experimental observation that people seek pleasure. However, the fact that everybody needs to be happy does not mean that happiness is desirable. Mill argues further that if each person’s happiness is only good for that person, therefore happiness is good for the aggregate of everybody. The important place that Mill awards to autonomy and self-development in the real life is also evident in the well-known thesis of On Liberty that; “the sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection”. He explained that happiness can be maximized by providing cultural, social and economic conditions in which people can live their lives depending on their own idea of the good. The wise government will treat everyone equal before the law. The good government will also guarantee freedom of expression and encourage educational opportunities. The urgencies in the Government and individuals should support the push, but not to force the people to make foolish choices (Habibi, 6). Marx also utilizes the thoughts of Aristotle as he appears to say that human nature is majorly made by the social behavior. The arguments of Marx against the human nature theoretical conception, offering an explanation entrenched in luxurious life instead. Marx is quite open that individuals express their life. The nature of the individual depends on their material state of their production and also believes that human nature will be formed in a way in which the individual life is expressed. History entails a constant human nature transformation; however not all aspect of human nature is fully variable; what is changed needs not be completely transformed. Marx continues to argue that human are very different from other animals, and this differs with Aristotle’s thoughts. He says that men can be differentiated from other animals by religion, consciousness, and many, other more. When human immediately begins produce their means of subsistence, they start being different from other animals a state that is accustomed by their physical organization. However, it is true that animals also produce. They build their dwelling nest, for example, the bees, ants, the beaver and the birds. Even though they produce, their production is majorly their basic needs or those of their young ones. They only produce when they are forced with the immediate physical means. Man, on the other hand, does not rely on the immediate physical need for him to produce. Animals produce themselves only while man reproduces the whole of nature and freely confronts its product. Animal’s production is mainly determined by the needs and the standards of the species to which they belong, and their products belong directly to their physical body. However, man is in a position to produce according to every species standards, and he also produces having in mind the law of beauty. According to Marx, production is an essential human activity and has a lot of benefits when freely persuaded. Marx also utilizes Aristotle thought of human being a social creature. This is evidenced when Marx argues that it is more complicated to determine what is involved in making one’s species one’s object. He also emphasizes on the fundamental human social character and there need to live in the species' community (Hudis, 93). Conclusion Aristotle's thought is both used by Marx and Mill; various similarities and differences have been observed. The first observable similarity is the thought of the human being having a social nature. Mill has used the theory of social capital to explain the interaction between individuals. Mill argues that democracy is high in places where social capital is strong and low were social capital is low. Aristotle's thought of the determination of all humans to flourish is also applied by Mill. Mill argues that the utility principle could be determined by the experimental observation that people seek happiness and everybody is determined and focused to be happy. The contrast of the application of the Aristotle thoughts is seen through the argument of Marx. Aristotle argues that, human is an animal because they are Physical being, and they require physical exercise that help in keeping their body to function properly. He continues to argue that man is an animal and he refers to them as emotional beings. According to Aristotle, that emotion is what makes the animals different from the plants as the plants have no emotional feelings. Marx strongly disagrees with Aristotle thought as he argues that human and other animals are different, and the difference is majorly evidenced in the production. Marx claims that when human immediately starts to produce their means of subsistence, the different between them and other animals is observed as this is accustomed to their physical organization. Even though it is true that animals can also produce, their production is always for their immediate physical use or their young ones. That is; their production is majorly determined by the immediate physical means. In a nutshell, Marx argues that animals differ from human as their production is determined with the immediate physical means. Work Cited Habibi, Don A. John Stuart Mill and the Ethic of Human Growth. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, 2001. Internet resource. Hudis, Peter. Marx's Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism. Leiden: Brill, 2012. Print. Paul, Ellen F, Fred D. Miller, and Jeffrey Paul. Human Flourishing. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Print. Read More