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Politics: A Treatise on Government by Aristotle
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end. This is the principle expressed in Aristotle's account of
political justice, the principle of "tools to those who can use them."
As the aim of the state is differently conceived, the qualifications
for government will vary. In the ideal state power will be given to
the man with most knowledge of the good; in other states to the men
who are most truly capable of achieving that end which the citizens
have set themselves to pursue. The justest distribution of political
power is that in which there is least waste of political ability.

Further, the belief that the constitution of a state is only the
outward expression of the common aspirations and beliefs of its
members, explains the paramount political importance which Aristotle
assigns to education. It is the great instrument by which the
legislator can ensure that the future citizens of his state will share
those common beliefs which make the state possible. The Greeks with
their small states had a far clearer apprehension than we can have of
the dependence of a constitution upon the people who have to work it.

Such is in brief the attitude in which Aristotle approaches political
problems, but in working out its application to men and institutions
as they are, Aristotle admits certain compromises which are not really
consistent with it.

1. Aristotle thinks of membership of a state as community in pursuit
of the good. He wishes to confine membership in it to those who are
capable of that pursuit in the highest and most explicit manner. His
citizens, therefore, must be men of leisure, capable of rational
thought upon the end of life. He does not recognise the significance
of that less conscious but deep-seated membership of the state which
finds its expression in loyalty and patriotism. His definition of
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