As we age and gain experience, we have a drive to give that knowledge to future generations so they don’t have to learn things the hard way as we did. This drive is what philosophers have toward future generations. The Greeks preserved their observations about life and built on each others conclusions. I have been giving a loose review of Aristotle’s Politics. It is interesting how people throughout history faced the challenges as we do and they experimented with different methods to deal with them. The results can be observed and we can learn from them.

A person given to vice will sacrifice the greater good for momentary pleasures. This makes for short lived pleasure and dependencies. To bring out the best in anything, we address two areas; preservation and actuation. We want to preserve good things for the longest time possible while encouraging the use of each person’s individual passions. The joy of revealing what is in a person’s heart and mind requires a secure environment since there are always those who take advantage or are unjust. A way we try to guarantee this is through contracts. Marriage is a contract to preserve the good between two people and to provide an environment for both people to bring out their best efforts and ideas and to bring up children who perpetuate them. A country is similar to a family. A constitution is the contract between good people to provide a secure environment and give its citizens an environment to express themselves and build what is in their hearts.

In ethics, the goal is lasting happiness. The use of a person’s passions are good unless they jeopardize the ability to have a good life. At that point they become vises. In politics, the goal is to have a lasting republic where people can enjoy freedom and security. These make the best foundation for happiness. We all have causes and personalities that we like. When they become more important than freedom and security for everyone, they become tyranny. In the same way that passions aren’t bad in themselves, our causes are usually good. Personalities we like can be virtuous initially. But if what they do jeopardizes freedom and security, an erosion occurs and the result is a net loss. The goodness can last as long as the personality or interest in the cause is there, but the country falls apart afterward. This is similar to when passions wane and one ends up with their life in a mess.

Concerning the style of governing, a democracy works best when people are all similar such as a farming community. When a city engages in commerce or goes to war, there is a need for skill in governing. That is where a aristocracy works better. Both a monarchy and aristocracy are forms of leadership where we look for the best and brightest. These are stabilized inside the framework of a constitution where the people have defined their responsibilities and limited the scope of their involvement in the affairs of the country.