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Hansen (M.H.) Reflections on Aristotle's Politics . Pp. viii + 127. Copenhagen : Museum Tusculanum Press, University of Copenhagen , 2013. Paper, [euro]27, US$35. ISBN: 978-87-635-4062-9 .
Reviews
The intended audience for this collection of previously published papers are those Aristotle scholars who know H.'s work on ancient democracy, but who are not familiar with his scholarship on the Politics. The result is a triumph: the eight chapters are incredibly lucid, the interpretations advanced are controversial but well defended, and the analyses deal with core topics that will be of interest to anyone working in political philosophy.
The volume begins with H. arguing that we cannot understand Politics 4-6 as an application of Aristotle's famous six-fold model of political constitutions. Instead, readers must recognise that Aristotle adopts a new model that features only three constitution types: democracy, oligarchy and aristocracy/polity. Kingship is abandoned because it exists only as a theoretical possibility, not as an actual contemporary constitution; tyranny is now extreme oligarchy or democracy rather than rule by a single despot. Politeia and aristocracy no longer pick out different constitutions, but rather two variations of a single constitution. H. thinks Aristotle prefers this new three-fold model because it is more empirical and admits of gradual real-world differences instead of sharp theoretical divides. Moreover, the new model solves the conundrum of how to classify constitutions in which a few poor or many rich rule (both are variations of aristocracy/polity), and it fits nicely with the theory of the mean.
Aristotle clearly does wish 4-6 to be understood as a serious attempt to comprehend real-world constitutions, though I am not convinced that Aristotle must be read as dropping the six-fold model. After all, H. himself admits that Aristotle adheres to the six-fold model all the way into 4.2, and this interpretation forces H. to claim (rather awkwardly) that Aristotle's study of kingship and tyranny in Book...