Aneient Philosophy 5 ©Mathesis Publications, Inc. The Political Intention of Aristotle's Moral Philosophy P.A. Vander Waerdt 77 Aristotle's moral philosophy forms part of his comprehensive political science (1tOAL'tLX1}), but contemporary scholars have generally neglected the relation of his ethical writings to the Polities. Richard Bodeüs' purpose in his important study, Le philosophe et la eite, is to restore Aristotle's moral philosophy to the political framework in which it was conceived and presented. He refutes the widely if often tacitly held assumption that Aristotle's ethical works expound an 'autonomous moral science' (Gauthier and Jolif 1959, ii:1, 1-2, 10-12), and he argues that the purpose ofpolitical science is prac- tical rather than theoretical: to provide the actual or potential statesman with the training in legislative science (cpPOV1}<lLt; necessary to legislate weH. The account of legislation and forms of regime provided in the Polities, Bodeüs argues, is intended to enable the statesman to put the teaching on human eudaimonia advanced in the Nieomaehean Ethies into effect. This thesis is certainly correct, being supported as it is by extensive and unambiguous evidence, but it is not so original as Bodeüs claims, for he unfortunately has overlooked the two most important previous discussions of the subject (Trepanier 1963, Cashdollar 1973; also Flashar 1971, Koumakis 1979), each of which anticipates his thesis. But Bodeüs' study is the most comprehensive to date, and his iHuminating and detailed examination ofthe evidence is particularly welcome in view of the failure of much contemporary scholarship to understand the political intention of Aristotle's moral philosophy. Bodeüs' argument divides into an introduction, five chapters and a conclusion. Taking as his starting-point the programmatic introduction of the EN in which Aristotle desig- nates his inquiry as a sort of political science {1tOAL'tLX1} 'tLt;, 1094b11), explains why youths are not proper auditors of political science (1095a2-3), and specifies the proper methodology for inquiry into this subject (1095a30-b8), Bodeüs assembles a wide vari- ety of evidence in his first chapter concerning the common design of the EN and Poli- ties. He adduces particularly the ancient view that Aristotle's inquiry into character ('t1X is the first component of political science, the lack of any reference in the Corpus Aristotelieum to 1}8LX1} or 1}8LX1} and Aristotle's consistent designa- tion of the doctrine of the ethical writings as political science. In his second chapter Bodeüs considers the statesman's role by way of a detailed analysis of EN x 9. He argues that legislative science regulates moral education not only for the city but for households and cities as weH; that this science, which enables one to turn others toward