STUDIA UBB. PHILOSOPHIA, Vol. 61 (2016), 3, pp. 23-39 (RECOMMENDED CITATION) DIALECTIC AND ITS ROLE IN ARISTOTLE’S POLITICAL MORPHOLOGY. THE CASE OF DISTINGUISHING OLIGARCHY AND DEMOCRACY * IOVAN DREHE ** ABSTRACT. Dialectic and Its Role in Aristotle’s Political Morphology. The Case of Distinguishing Oligarchy and Democracy. Is the number of rulers an essential criterion in distinguishing democracy from oligarchy? This is an important issue tackled by Aristotle in two places from his Politics (III, 8 and IV, 4), an issue that seems to generate disagreement among scholars. Some believe that number is an essential criterion, i.e. a differentia, others that it is an accident. An attempt to solve this disagreement shall be considered from the perspective of Aristotle’s views on dialectics. I will try to show that even if there is no sufficient proof to mandate the interpretation that the number of rulers is a differentia, this position can be defended to some point. In addition, that it is more likely that he considered number to be a particular type of accident. Keywords: Aristotle, democracy, oligarchy, dialectic, number, wealth, differentia, accident 1. Introduction Aristotle’s best-known classification of political regimes seems clear enough and without any significant shortcomings. With its two criteria for classification, aim of the ruler or rulers and the number of rulers, it provides us with six kinds of political regimes: monarchy, aristocracy, constitutional government, democracy, oligarchy and, the worst, tyranny. However, paying more heed to what Aristotle has to say in detail about the way these regimes are to be considered distinct might puzzle some readers. One of these is related to the manner in which Aristotle operates a distinction between the two of the most common regimes of his day, democracy and oligarchy, and the role of the criterion of number of rulers in this particular case. * This work was supported by a grant of the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research and Innovation, CNCS – UEFISCDI, project number PN-II-RU-TE-2014-4-1207. ** Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, email: drehe_iovan@yahoo.com