Workshop in Ancient Philosophy (Thursday - Week 7, MT24)

Abstract: In Aristotle's practical philosophy, in what sense is practical wisdom (phronesis), the same thing as political understanding (politike)? He says "they are the same state, but their being is different' (VI.7, 1141b14).  Scholars have understood him to mean that phronesis that governs the life of an individual is the basic or paradigm case -- or at least, the literature has proceeded apace under that assumption.  I ask what would happen if we took political understanding-- in its central form as the art of legislation--as the central or paradigm case.  I present evidence for this way of framing Aristotle's practical philosophy, and I sketch a picture of excellent political deliberation, using examples mostly from the Politics.  I then offer a re-reading of the famous and controversial claim that phronesis does not deliberate about ends, and make suggestions as to how the re-framing may change how we see other persistent difficulties in Aristotle's ethical and political theory.