Politics for Aristotle is not a struggle between individuals or classes. Plato ends The Republic on a surprising note. It is the legislators task to frame a society which shall make the good life possible. In this, as well as a more recent book, Aristotles Theory of the Will (New Haven, 1979). Justice is good, in other words, because it is connected to the greatest good, the Form of the Good. See the account of Anthony Kenny, The Aristotelian Ethics, pp.

4 ( 1981): 459–78 CrossRef Google Scholar and Frank, Democracy of Distinction, 164. The just life is good in and of itself because it involves grasping these ultimate goods, and imitating their order and harmony, thus incorporating them into one’s own life. 428n2 Lord, Carnes, “ The Character and Composition of Aristotle's Politics,” Political Theory 9, no. For arguments against Jaeger's distinction, see Kraut, Aristotle, esp. 3 ( 1986): 480–503 CrossRef Google Scholar Mulgan, Richard G., Aristotle's Political Theory ( Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977), 102 Google Scholar and Alexander, Liz Anne, “ The Best Regimes of Aristotle's Politics,” History of Political Thought 21, no. For recent attempts to settle the question of the best constitution by distinguishing between multiple lines of inquiry (and thus multiple “best” constitutions), see Coby, Patrick, “ Aristotle's Four Conceptions of Politics,” Western Political Quarterly 39, no.

), and is supported by Aristotle's own description of his investigation in 4.1 (esp. 8 This view has its roots in Werner Jaeger's distinction between Aristotle's practically and ideally best constitutions (Jaeger, Aristotle: Fundamentals of the History of His Development, 2nd ed. Aristotle argued that oligarchies and democracies are the most common forms of government, with much in common except their allocation of power and thus he.

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