Aristotle's Manipulative Maxims. Issue 3 (2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: DiLeo, Daniel
• Is Part Of: Review of politics. Volume 82:Issue 3(2020)
• Page Start: 371
• Page End: 392
• Publication Date: 2020
• Subjects: 320.5
• DOI: 10.1017/S003467052000039X
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0034-6705

Abstract

Abstract: In actual regimes as described by Aristotle, authoritative civic choices were not the outcome of speech among citizens about the noble things and the just things. Rather, he saw them as products of the flawed presuppositions and misperceptions of dominant factions. Since he held that the human good was dependent on the persistence of lawful systems of rule, no matter how flawed, he viewed the tendency of dominant factions toward regime-destructive extremism as the fundamental political problem. His short-term response was to teach manipulative rhetoric and the outline of a strategy for regime preservation to his students. This equipped his students to prevail against the speech of the ignorant and malevolent and impressed those students with the need to acquire political knowledge. His long-term response was the initiation of a system of education that would turn citizens away from regime-destructive predilections.