Forthcoming in Classical Philology Explanatory Causes in Aristotle’s Constitutional Theory This paper defends the thesis that the theory of explanatory causes plays a substantive and nontrivial role in Aristotle’s constitutional theory.1 The Aristotelian politeia, I contend, is the formal cause of the polis and it is determined by the conception of eudaimonia prevalent among the dominant or ruling political group in the polis. Section 1 defends the general claim that Aristotle’s constitutional analysis is informed by his theory of explanatory causes and the specific claim that the politeia is a formal cause. Section 2 then connects the status of the politeia as a formal cause to the diverse conceptions of eudaimonia which determine regime-types and their laws. Section 1: The Politeia as a Formal Cause The politeia is, as most commentators recognise, the central and organising concept of Aristotle’s political thought.2 In this first section I argue that the explanatory priority of the politeia is inseparable from its status as the formal cause of the polis. While Aristotle often refers to forms (eidē) of constitution, there are some apparent obstacles to the use of causal explanations in the practical domain. Aristotle’s use of the politeia to explain both the unity of a polis and its identity conditions nonetheless supports, I contend, a non-reductive reading of its status as a formal cause. Miller has provided a suggestive outline of the applicability of causes to Aristotle’s political thought.3 The material cause of the polis, as a composite whole, is its citizens (Pol. 1274b38–41; 1326a5). Arrangement of these citizens into a composite structure (sunthesin) constitutes the politeia as the form (eidos) of the polis (1276b7-10). On this reading, the polis has ‘within it a formal 1 The claim that the politeia is a formal cause is quite common in recent Anglo-American scholarship, yet has not been developed and defended in detail. Applications of the theory of causes to Aristotle’s political theory are found in Miller (1995: 15 and 151; 2017) and Keyt (2017: 178-9). An instructive discussion of the politeia as the form or eidos of the polis is found in Bates (2003: 62). See also Bates (2014: 143). For a cautious identification based on Politics (1276b1-9) see Irwin (1988: 254). In his analysis of explanatory causes, Stein assumes that the ‘state’ and the constitution are formal causes (2011: 700 and 702). See also Neschke-Hentschke (1971: 145-8). 2 The translations ‘constitution’ (Keyt (1997) and Reeve (2017)) and ‘regime’ (Simpson (1998) and Lord (2012)) each capture aspects of the term politeia and I employ both here dependent on context. For a systematic analysis of the 522 occurrences of the term politeia in the Politics, see Mulhern (2015). Mulhern identifies four distinct but often closely related senses of the term politeia: citizenship, citizen-body, constitution or arrangement of offices and regime (2015: 84). For historical context on Greek politeia literature see also Menn (2005: 2-5) and Harte and Lane (2013). 3 Miller (2017). 1|P a g e Forthcoming in Classical Philology apolaustic life, or only of the apolaustic life and the political life, thus has a more partisan perspective than someone able to participate in these forms of life and the philosophic as well. References Annas, J. 1982. “Inefficient Causes” Philosophical Quarterly 32: 311–322. Bates, C. A. 2003. Aristotle's “Best Regime”: Kingship, Democracy, and the Rule of Law. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. Bates, C.A. 2014. “The centrality of politeia for Aristotle’s Politics: Aristotle’s Continuing Significance for Social and Political Science” Social Sciences Information 53: 139-159. Charles, D. 2000. Aristotle on Meaning and Essence. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Code, A. 1997. “The Priority of Final Causes over Efficient Causes in Aristotle's Parts of Animals.” In W. Kullmann and S. Föllinger (eds.). Aristotelische Biologie. Stuttgart: Steiner: 127–143. Fortenbaugh, W.W. 1991. “Aristotle on Prior and Posterior, Correct and Incorrect Constitutions.” In D. Keyt and F.D. Miller, Jr. (eds.). A Companion to Aristotle's Politics. Blackwell: Oxford. 226-237. Freeland, C., 1991, “Accidental Causes and Real Explanations.” In L. Judson (ed.) Aristotle’s Physics: A Collection of Essays, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 49–72. Hansen, M.W. 2013. Reflections on Aristotle’s 'Politics'. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press. Harte, V. and Lane, M. (eds). 2013. Politeia in Greek and Roman Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Irwin, T. H. 1988. Aristotle’s First Principles, Oxford: Clarendon Press. Kahn, C.H. 1990. “The Normative Structure of Aristotle's Politics.” In G. Patzig (ed.) Aristoteles' ‘Politik’. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. 369–84. Keyt, D. 1991. “Three Basic Theorems in Aristotle's Politics.” In D. Keyt and F.D. Miller, Jr. (eds.) A Companion to Aristotle's Politics. Oxford: Blackwell: 118–41. Keyt, D. 1997. Aristotle Politics VII-VIII. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Keyt, D. 2017. Nature and Justice: Studies in the Ethical and Political Philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. Leuven: Peeters. Kraut, R. 2002. Aristotle: Political Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Liddell, H.G. and Scott, R. 2000. Greek-English Lexicon seventh edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Lockwood, T. 2017. “Judging Constitutions: Aristotle’s Critique of Plato’s Republic and Sparta.” Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 99: 353-79. Lord. C. 2012. Aristotle’s Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Menn, S. 2005. “On Plato’s ΠΟΛΙΤΕΙΑ” Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy 21: 153. Miller, F.D. Jr. 1991. “Aristotle on Natural Law and Justice.” In D. Keyt and F.D. Miller, Jr. (eds.). A Companion to Aristotle's Politics. Blackwell: Oxford. 279-306. Miller, F.D. Jr. 1995. Nature, Justice, and Rights in Aristotle's Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Miller, F.D. Jr. 2009. “Aristotle on the Ideal Constitution.” In G. Anagnostopoulos (ed.) A Companion to Aristotle. London: Wiley-Blackwell. 540-553. Miller, F.D. Jr. 2017. “Aristotle’s Political Theory.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-politics/ Moravcsik, J. M. 1974. “Aristotle on Adequate Explanations.” Synthese 28: 3–17. Mulhern, J.J. 2015. “Politeia in Greek Literature, Inscriptions, and in Aristotle’s Politics: Reflections on Translation and Interpretation.” In T. Lockwood and T. Samaras (eds.) Aristotle’s Politics: A Critical Guide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 84-102. Neschke-Hentschke, A. 1971. Politik und Philosophie bei Plato und Aristoteles: die Stellung der “Nomoi” im Platonischen Gesamtwerk und die Politische Theorie des Aristoteles. Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann. Newman, W.L. 1887-1902. The Politics of Aristotle. 4 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 21 | P a g e Forthcoming in Classical Philology Nielsen, K.M. 2015. “Aristotle on Principles in Ethics: Political Science as the Science of the Human Good.” In D. Henry and K.M. Nielsen (eds.) Bridging the Gap Between Aristotle’s Science and Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 29-48. Reeve, C.D.C. 2009. “The Naturalness of the Polis in Aristotle.” In A Companion to Aristotle. G. Anagnostopoulos (ed.) Oxford: Blackwell. 512-525. Reeve, C.D.C. 2017. Politics. Indianapolis: Hackett. Riesbeck, D. 2016. Aristotle on Political Community. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Riesbeck, D. 2016a. “The Unity of Aristotle’s Theory of Constitutions” Apeiron 49: 93-125. Rowe, C.J. 1991. ‘Aims and Methods in Aristotle’s Politics.’ In D. Keyt and F.D. Miller, Jr. (eds.) A Companion to Aristotle's Politics. Oxford: Blackwell: 57-74. . Schofield, M. 2006. Plato: Political Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Schütrumpf, E. 1999-2005. Aristoteles Politik. 4 vols. Berlin: Akadamie Verlag. Shields, C. 2015. “The Science of Soul in Aristotle’s Ethics.” In D. Henry and K.M. Nielsen (eds.) Bridging the Gap Between Aristotle’s Science and Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 232-253. Simpson, P. 1998. A Philosophical Commentary on the Politics of Aristotle. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Stein, N. 2011. “Aristotle’s Causal Pluralism” Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 93: 121–147. Sprague, R. K. 1968. “The Four Causes: Aristotle’s Exposition and Ours.” Monist 52: 298–300. Susemihl, F. and Hicks, R.D. 1894. The Politics of Aristotle: A Revised Text. Books I-V (I-III, VII-VIII). New York: Macmillan. Todd, R. B. 1976. “The Four Causes: Aristotle’s Exposition and the Ancients” Journal of the History of Ideas 37: 319–322. 22 | P a g e