In most places today, civics education languishes in a culture of ignorance and irrational feeling. It presents political life as an arena in which men and women battle for the control of public resources. It makes no effort to establish a clear view of the nature of man or the true purpose of society. Students are taught about branches of government, elections, and rights, yet are rarely led to ask the prior and more important questions:
- What is man?
- Why does political society exist?
- What is the common good?
- What forms of government exist?
- Where did our government come from?
Without answers to these questions, civics becomes chaotic, an endless batlle of selfish opinions and emotions. It doesn’t produce wisdom, but confusion—citizens who may be able to talk about the parts of government, but do not understand what those systems are for or how they work.
In Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, he explains that human happiness is found in a life of virtue. This virtue, however, does not end with personal virtue or with personal happiness, but extends to serve the common good of all men. He argues that the political science is that power by which the highest form of human happiness may be understood and pursued. In his Politics, he teaches us that political science.
The study of Aristotle’s Politics can remedy the problems in modern education. Rather than beginning by describing institutions that happen to exist or speaking ignorantly about what needs to change, Aristotle begins with a study of human nature. He investigates the nature of man, and from that starting point presents a vision of political life that is coherent and ordered toward a true end. Because man is rational and social by nature, the political community arises not by convention alone, but from the very principles of human existence. The study of politics becomes a branch of philosophy, rooted in metaphysics and ethics. It provides students with a foundation upon which a consistent and unified worldview may be built—one in which personal virtue, social order, and the common good may be understood.
Aristotle’s Politics proceeds in a clear and methodical manner, giving students an orderly framework through which we may understand all human relations. He begins with the most fundamental society, the household, examining the relations between husband and wife, parent and child, and master and servant. In doing so, he identifies principles of authority, responsibility, and natural order that extend outward into larger communities. From the household, he moves to the village, and from the village to the city—the complete political community—which exists not merely for the necessities life, but for “the good life” — that quality of life which human society has the potential to enjoy.
Having established the natural origins of political society, Aristotle turns to the study of constitutions. He distinguishes between those forms of government that seek the common good—kingship, aristocracy, and polity—and those that are corrupted by self-interest—tyranny, oligarchy, and disordered democracy. This study allows students to evaluate political systems not by popularity or power, but by their relation to justice and the true end of society.
Aristotle further examines the causes of political stability and instability, exploring why governments change, how divisions arise, and what conditions strengthen or destroy a state. His insights into law, justice, and the balance of powers provide a lens through which both ancient and modern societies may be understood. Most importantly, Aristotle provides a vision of the best possible political order, emphasizing the central role of education in forming virtuous citizens. For Aristotle, the success of any political community depends upon the moral character of its people, and therefore the legislator must be concerned above all with the cultivation of virtue.
The Politics provides students of all ages with a comprehensive framework for understanding human relationships at every level. It orders the mind to see how authority, obedience, justice, and friendship operate within the family, the local community, and the state. It helps students to think clearly about leadership, law, rights, duties, unity and diversity within a society. Most importantly, it directs our attention to the common good as the goal of political life, integrating their understanding of society with their pursuit of personal virtue.
In an age marked by confusion and division, the recovery of this classical wisdom is not merely beneficial—it is necessary. The study of Aristotle’s Politics restores clarity where there is disorder, principle where there is opinion, and purpose where there is drift. It forms not only informed citizens, but thoughtful and virtuous human beings.
The Classical Liberal Arts Academy invites students of all ages to take up this important study of Classical Politics. In the course we study Aristotle’s Politics and develop a worldview that allows us to order all of our relations according to the true principles of political science. By doing this, we will be able to pursue our chief end, the promotion of the common good.
I am currently working to make the full text of Thomas Taylor’s translation avaialble freely on the CLAA website for study. You can access it here: Aristotle, Politics.
God bless your studies,
Mr. William C. Michael, O.P.
Headmaster
Classical Liberal Arts Academy
