Aristotle On Political Ethics Analysis

The issue of relations between politics and ethics is not only a theoretical subject that is followed with interest by successive theorists in China and abroad, but also a concern of practice that possesses important practical value in social life. As an encyclopedic scholar in ancient Greece, Aristotle has made significant contributions in various fields. His representative work of political science, "Politics", distinguishes politics from other disciplines for the first time and establishes a complete learning system of politics. As such, Aristotle is deemed publicly to be the founder of Western politics. Meanwhile, his representative work of ethics, "Nicomachean Ethics ", is the first systematic and complete ethics treatise in human history with a well-knit and satisfactory structure that settles the standing of Aristotle as the originator of Western ethics. In the above two treatises, Aristotle separates political issues from ethical issues, which is the first time in the history of Western thoughts to distinguish the discipline of politics from that of ethics. And also, the distinctive thoughts of political ethics come into being by Aristotle's efforts to associate politics with ethics. The research of Aristotle's thoughts of political ethics is the historical trace of Western thoughts of political ethics. It provides valuable theoretical resources for expanding the research of China's contemporary studies of political ethics thoughts and has an enlightening significance in the establishment of the harmonious society in present China.This article generally analyzes Aristotle's thoughts of political ethics from the perspectives of politics and ethics, by which it seeks to build up the system of Aristotle's political ethics thoughts and evaluate Aristotle's political ethics thoughts. It is divided into four parts, the first three of which contain the system of Aristotle's thoughts of political ethics and the last of which includes the evaluation of Aristotle's thoughts of political ethics.The system of Aristotle's political ethics thoughts includes the theory of value, the theory of norms and the theory of practice, which is an interrelated and relatively independent whole. The theory of value is the conceptual part of political ethics and the soul of political ethics thoughts, which determines immediately the construction of political ethics norms system and the practical orientation of political ethics. The theory of value contains the value subject (people), the value object (the city-state) and the value target (welfare). The theory of norms is the central part of Aristotle' s thoughts on political ethics, which dwells on ethical and moral principles and norms of political relations and political practices. It also inherently embodies the target of value of political ethics and stipulates the practice of political ethics. Aristotle's theory of norms consists of the uppermost principle (the doctrine of the mean), the core norm (justice) and the primary principles (bravery, wisdom and fraternity). The theory of practice is the contention and...