Offering an ancient education for our times, Jill Frank's A Democracy of Distinction interprets Aristotle's writings in a way that reimagines the foundations, aims, and practices of politics, ancient and modern. Concerned especially with the work of making a democracy of distinction, Frank shows that such a democracy requires freedom and equality achieved through the exercise of virtue. Moving back and forth between Aristotle's writings and contemporary legal and political theory, Frank breathes new life into our conceptions of property, justice, and law by viewing them not only as institutions but as dynamic activities as well. Frank's innovative approach to Aristotle stresses his appreciation of the tensions and complexities of politics so that we might rethink and reorganize our own political ideas and practices. A Democracy of Distinction will be of enormous value to classicists, political scientists, and anyone interested in revitalizing democratic theory and practice. Jill Frank is assistant professor of political science at the University of South Carolina, Columbia. A DEMOCRACY OF DISTINCTION Aristotle and the Work of Politics By JILL FRANK The University of Chicago Press Copyright © 2005 The University of Chicago All right reserved. ISBN: 978-0-226-26019-8 Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS....................................xiLIST OF ABBREVIATIONS..............................xiiiINTRODUCTION.......................................1ONE The Nature of Identity........................17The Force of Nature................................21The Nature of Nature...............................38The Work of Man....................................49TWO The Use of Property...........................54The Activity of Use................................57The Virtue of Property.............................69The Politics of Property...........................74THREE The Virtue of Justice.......................81Reciprocity........................................85Good Judgment......................................95Justice and Virtue.................................101FOUR The Rule of Law..............................112The Laws of Citizens...............................115The Laws of Polities...............................126Constitution.......................................135FIVE The Polity of Friendship.....................138Unity and Difference...............................143Friendship and Faction.............................147The Middle Class...................................163The Work of Politics...............................178WORKS CITED........................................181INDEX..............................................193 Chapter One The Nature of Identity * * * This is a matter of nature: what a thing is potentially, that its work reveals in actuality. ARISTOTLE, Nicomachean Ethics Man is by nature a political being. ARISTOTLE, Politics To most readers, Aristotle's introduction of natural slavery, along with his many references to "nature," phusis , throughout Politics I implies a foundational role for nature outside and prior to politics. Politics I is important, they say, because it pairs nature with necessity and sets nature, including human nature, as a standard that fixes the boundaries of inclusion and exclusion in a political life. Among these readers, some find Aristotle's science of nature, which they take to underpin his ethics and politics, to be outdated, discredited, and altogether unacceptable and so reject his account of nature and the politics and ethics to which it is linked. Others reject Aristotle's science of nature but remain committed to his ethics and politics, severing the latter from the former. Still others see in it rich resources for his political and ethical philosophy. Of these, some endorse what they take to be his elitist exclusion of all but a few aristocratic men from participation in a political life. Others argue the opposite, namely, that Aristotle's understanding of human nature is less hostile than is generally thought to women or slaves. Yet others split the difference, endorsing his philosophical account of human nature while deploring some of his political applications of it. These are not merely abstract arguments about nature and politics. One reading justifies elite social hierarchy formation and its perpetuation on the ground that some people are inferior by nature and therefore should be excluded from the practices of citizenship and from the distribution of political goods. Other readings call for expansive political distribution on the ground that human nature yields a set of basic needs and desires, essential to well-being, that any good polity must meet. The differences among these interpretations are deep, and it is no small wonder that Aristotle's texts invite all of them. Despite their differences, these interpretations all claim that human nature determines the ends and purposes of polit