Week 2 (TT 2026)

Giuseppe Cumella (University of Oxford): 'The Aim and Argument of Politics 3.4.' 

Chair: Harry Alanen

Abstract: In this paper, I shall provide a fresh interpretation of Politics 3.4 as a whole. By as a whole, I mean that my interpretation shall consider each of the chapter’s arguments both in its local context and in the wider philosophical context of the text. My approach opposes those who interpret 3.4 piecemeal. I find that Aristotle’s aim is twofold; first, to show that each citizen is an officeholder, but that each is not the same sort of officeholder. Second, to show that the virtue of only one sort of officeholder (whom I call a head officeholder) is the same as the virtue of a good man.