The most perfect political community

“The most perfect political community is one in which the middle class is in control and outnumbers both of the other classes.” ~ Aristotle

Mini Bio: Aristotle

Aristotle, born in Chalcidice near modern-day Tessalonika in 384 BC, was a polymath and philosopher taught by Plato. He was a giant of the Ancient Greek Classic period and wrote on subjects as varied as government, poetry, physics, rhetoric, theatre, music and ethics.

He founded the Lyceum, the Peripatetic school of philosophy, and created his own tradition.

As head of the Royal Academy of Macedonia, he taught Alexander the Great. Aristotle motivated Alexander to pursue eastern conquests and exhorted him to: “Be a leader to the Greeks and a despot to the barbarians,” presumably everyone else. The two later fell out over Alexander’s relationships with the Persians.

Following Alexander’s death in 323BC, anti-Macedonian sentiment in Athens forced Aristotle to flee to Euboea where he died of natural causes in 322BC.

 

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