[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-635001-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-635001-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","incomplete-virtues-in-aristotles-politics-draft","Incomplete virtues in Aristotle's Politics - Draft","","The draft analyzes Aristotle’s account of virtue in relation to political and legislative practice, arguing that the full character virtue described in Nicomachean Ethics 2-4 is rarely—if ever—realized through ordinary laws and education. It surveys Aristotle’s critiques of typical lawgivers’ neglect of virtue cultivation and contrasts this with the exceptional Spartan attempt at public education while noting Spartan moral criticisms. The essay then considers whether virtue might be achieved privately and explains why Aristotle mostly emphasizes public institutions instead.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/incomplete-virtues-in-aristotles-politics-draft/635001/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/incomplete-virtues-in-aristotles-politics-draft/635001.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"miaandmiso","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-04","2026-10-22",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",7,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"What is the essay’s central claim about Aristotle’s ethics and politics?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"It argues that Aristotle’s ethical and political treatises aim to guide legislators toward constitutional and educational arrangements that can cultivate human excellence, yet full character virtue is not generally achieved in ordinary regimes.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"How does the draft use Aristotle’s texts to support the rarity of full virtue cultivation?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"It cites Aristotle’s complaints that most lawgivers do not care for virtue cultivation and notes that only the Spartan regime has attempted appropriate public education, while Aristotle also criticizes Spartan moral education.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"Does the draft consider private cultivation of virtue as a solution?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"Yes. It suggests full virtue might be cultivated privately within a family, but notes Aristotle rules this out as a complete account because proper habits are instilled from youth, and Aristotle largely emphasizes law and political arrangements.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},635001,1793116535,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,101,106,110,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":97,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":102,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":103,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":105},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":111,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},7971478544854,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_994ba38a5ba835b3df7d355c54d3ed8d","Incomplete virtues in Aristotle's Politics  \nZena Hitz  \nI write from the following instinct: The single, overarching aim of Aristotle's ethical and political treatises is to guide potential politicians and lawmakers to shape laws and constitutions to cultivate human excellence. The virtue of Aristotle's ethical treatises is described with a steady eye on its political cultivation in citizens or its impact on a lawgiver or political leader. The political theory of Aristotle's Politics, correspondingly, is chiefly occupied with guiding legislators and politicians in cultivating whatever virtue is possible in real-life circumstances. The question about eudaimonia, to judge from the opening claim in NE 1.1-2, is primarily a question about the end and guiding principle of of political and legislative activity.1 So too, eudaimonia and virtue play a key role in the analysis of regime-types in the Politics, with an eye to their improvement, as I will explain in the main argument of this essay.  \nMy instinct may sound more like a cliché than a substantive intervention in the literature.2 After all, it is evident that Aristotle considered the ethical and political treatises to be part of the same project, and that project is primarily political. The NE begins with an account of politikê as knowledge of human flourishing. It concludes with what seems to be an introduction to the Politics or a very similar work on the art of legislation. Yet the united perspective opens up fundamental questions that lie unasked and neglected in the literature, despite ongoing and intense interest in these texts. Does the variety of candidates for eudaimonia suggest that regimes, as well as individuals, sometimes get it right and other times wrong? Do different types of regime cultivate different kinds of virtue? If so, to what regime does the central discussion of virtue of character in Nicomachean Ethics 2-5 belong? Should we imagine, as is generally assumed, that this account of virtue of character is somehow generic, applying in all sorts of ordinary and contemporary circumstances? Or should we see it as a restricted ideal, more similar to the discussion of virtue in books 2-4 of Plato's Republic than a handbook for the modern virtue-seeker?  \n1 The Nicomachean Ethics does have a secondary aim, an undercurrent that addresses individuals in the choice of lives. Here the main choice facing an individual is the political life versus the contemplative life. The individualist undercurrent sits uneasily with the single, overarching aim of the treatise, for reasons that should be clear. Am I, the audience member, a potential legislator, or someone who might spend my life as a contemplative metic, teaching and writing about logic, metaphysics and the lives of obscure animals? For my current purposes I would like to set aside the individualist undercurrent and the tension it causes, in order to focus on my instinct and the bold claim implied in it.  \n2 See the obligatory inclusion in anthologies of a broad-brush article on the relationship between Aristotle's ethical and political theory, eg. Kamtekar, \"The Relationship Between Aristotle's Ethical and Political Discourses (NE X.9), in Polansky ed. The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014); Frede, \"The Political Character of Aristotle's Ethics\", in Deslauriers and Destrée eds. The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle's Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2013.)  \nDraft January 18, 2022  \nThere is strong evidence that the character virtue described in NE 2-4 is the goal of laws and education only rarely, if ever. Aristotle complains more than once that most lawgivers take no care for the cultivation of virtue. Only the Spartan regime has attempted appropriate public education (NE 1102a8-11, 1180a25-30, Politics 1337a31-3) . That is, full virtue of character is not cultivated in ordinary regimes, and so can be presumed rare among ordinary folk.","cbCaieF1fdpEwwbb","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaieF1fdpEwwbb","pdf",432907,26,"English","# Introduction\n## Eudaimonia and the guiding aim of political activity\n## Linking virtue to regime-types\n# Evidence for rare or absent full virtue cultivation\n## Lawgivers and public education\n## Critiques of Spartan education\n# Private cultivation and its limits\n## Habit formation and legislation\n# Attitudes toward political failure\n## Degeneration and the brightness of Aristotle’s response","[{\"question\":\"What is the essay’s central claim about Aristotle’s ethics and politics?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that Aristotle’s ethical and political treatises aim to guide legislators toward constitutional and educational arrangements that can cultivate human excellence, yet full character virtue is not generally achieved in ordinary regimes.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the draft use Aristotle’s texts to support the rarity of full virtue cultivation?\",\"answer\":\"It cites Aristotle’s complaints that most lawgivers do not care for virtue cultivation and notes that only the Spartan regime has attempted appropriate public education, while Aristotle also criticizes Spartan moral education.\"},{\"question\":\"Does the draft consider private cultivation of virtue as a solution?\",\"answer\":\"Yes. It suggests full virtue might be cultivated privately within a family, but notes Aristotle rules this out as a complete account because proper habits are instilled from youth, and Aristotle largely emphasizes law and political arrangements.\"}]","Incomplete virtues in Aristotle's Politics - Draft | PDF",1792675083,66]