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Hi steemian, today am going to talk about the basic words of Aristotle and the decline of the city states
Aristotle conceive politics as an integral part of ethic which is a competition and verification of it. In ethics that the moral ideal in political administration is only a different aspect of that which also applies to individual happiness. Man for him is a Political animal and a fraction of the cities state &that the cities state is the necessary conditions for serialized life and only the means for bringing human faculty to their highest level of form of development.
He further contends that humans are by nature social being and the possession of rational speech in itself lead us to a SOCIAL UNION. He conceive the ideal state to be an offshoot from the family which involve through a village community to term nation and subsequently A STATE. It is usually based on sharing as it was originally formed for the satisfaction of natural want, The ideal state exist for moral ends and for the promotion of higher life. The state at such is not mere local union for the prevention of wrong doing and convenience of exchange.
The family which chronologically existed before the state involves a series of nations between husband and wife, parent & child, master & slave.
Aristotle describes slavery as a natural institution and the slave as a piece of life property which has no existence except in a Nation with the Slave master. The likened relation, between the slave and its master to that of his body and soul.
Declines of city states
Epicurean Philosophy- They sought to inculcate in its students, a state of individual self-sufficiency. Its primary teaching is that a good life consists of the enjoyment of pleasure. To the epicureans, happiness implies the avoidance of pain, worry and anxiety. It involves a withdrawal from the useless care of public life.
The epicurean philosophy identified the anxiety of religion of divine retribution and the incomprehensible whims of god and spirits as among the most serious consolation to which men are heir. It further advanced the belief that the gods care not about men and do not interfere either for good or evil in the course of their lives.
For the epicurean, Nature means physics and constitutes the atom from which all things are made. The epicurean philosopher observe that so far the individual are concerned nature means self interest, the desire for every man for his own happiness, They however contend that all men are selfish and seek their own good.
The Cynics
The cynics propagated a protest against the city states and the social classifications upon which is rested . They exhibited what was described as a shocking rudeness and disregard for decorum in their behavior. Their teaching were in most part targeted at the poor and emphasized contempt for all conventionality. The cynics consist of individuals who were recruited from the ranks of foreigners and exiles and as philosophers they adopted a life of poverty on principle.
The essential doctrinal kernel as espoused by the cynics is that the wise man ought to be completely self-sufficing. By implication, it means that only things within his power is thought and character is sufficient to lead the good life. The cynics believe that every other thing with specific focus on marriage, family, property, citizenship learning good repute as well as all the piety and conventions of a civilized life full within the realm of indifference.
The Stoics
The stoic movement emerged as the fourth major Athenian school of philosophy around 300Bc and became more pronounced during the second century after Christ. Its founder was Zeno of Citium. Other leaders of the Stoic movement after Zeno came from elsewhere particularly Asia minor where there is a remarkable mixture of Greek and the orientals.
Stoics was a branch of cynism but Zeno broke ranks because of his crudeness and lack of decorum to which their Nationalism led. One platform explored by the Stoics was the focus on monarchy which political philosopher Aristotle gave only an academic focus.
Stoicism which is considered a Hellenistic school propagated the theory of deification of kings. A true king was considered divine because he brought harmony to his kingdom as God brings harmony to the world. He was an animate law, that is a personalized form for the principles of law and right that govern the whole universe. It was for this reason that stoics maintained that the king possessed a divinity which the common man did not share and which brought any unworthy usurper of a throne to disaster.
The ethical purpose f stoicism like other philosophies before it was designed to produce self-sufficiency and individual well being. An essential kernel of the stoic philosophy emanates from the religious conviction of oneness and perfection of nature or a true moral order.