جدلية العلاقة بين الأخلاق و السياسة : أفلاطون و أرسطو نموذجان

Abstract EN

The relationship between ethics and politics has been a dialectical one that goes back to the beginnings of philosophical thought.

Perhaps the most famous attempts to formulate this dialectical relationship in ancient thought go back to Plato and his student Aristotle, and indeed to Plato's teacher Socrates.

Plato's dialogues and Aristotle's works dealt with such relationship.

For them, the statesman is only a wise man who applies what his morals, philosophy and virtues dictate.

There were intersections between ethics and politics in the works of Plato and Aristotle, as relationship between them was so dialectical that none of them could be separated from the other.

Plato was influenced by his teacher, Socrates.

Therefore, Plato's moral and political philosophy appeared as an extension of Socrates.

Plato saw that the ethics sought by Socrates deals with all the problems of the Greek state.

Hence, Plato criticized the Sophists' relativism, and based both his political and moral theory on justice.

He drafted his republic on the foundations and virtues that represent the individual, as he saw the individual as a miniature unit of the state in which s/he lives.

Plato also tried hard to define the moral characteristics of the ruler of his city (the republic), and found that a philosopher was the most deserving of all people to rule this state.

For Aristotle, the principle of purpose was the basis of both politics and ethics.

His theories of happiness, supreme goodness and virtue were the pillars of building his standard state.