Aristotle Quotes
It is clearly better that property should be private, but the use of it common; and the special business of the legislator is to create in men this benevolent disposition.
Aristotle. Politics. Translated by Benjamin Jowett, Clarendon Press, 1885, p. 34.
While this principle is widely accepted in modern America, in the early 20th century this was a view considered radical, socialist and even communistic by many of the leading businessmen in the nation. For a president to utter these words, much less a Republican President of a rich, upper class background.
The Catholic view on the subject varied from time to time, even with the same Pope. See {360616} for another quote from this Pope that gives a different point of view.
This book became the basic English textbook on socialism. Astoundingly, it sold over 2 million copies at a time when few books other than the Bible ever sold in that quantity. The fact that it was so popular alarmed many of the more conservative politicians of the day.
Normally, Molinaro was opposed to State, Federal and Local Government involved with Citizens. Staten Island was a Blue Collar community that prided itself in its rugged individualism. But when there was a problem, Molinaro asked for help and defined government responsibility in terms that would usually be used by left wing democrats. There is nothing like an emergency to motivate politicians to abandon their ideology.
While generally true, Mises here again exaggerates his “proof” by selectively ignoring or being ignorant of counter-examples. The Roman Catholic Church is a classic counter-example where priests, monks, and others owned nothing as individuals, but produced some great science (eg Gregor Mendel), art (the illuminated texts of the middle ages), literature (St Thomas Aquinas, etc). The best counter example that was just evident in the last decade of Misis’ life is Communist Russia. Russian science was better than Fance and Germany and second only to the United States. The Russian ballet and orchestras were second to none. Great literature came out of the Soviet Union and the best of it complained about and attacked the Soviet system of the times. In general, Mises principle tended to be correct throughout history but not always as he dogmatically stated.
Aristotle (/ærɪˈstɒtəl/; Greek: Ἀριστοτέλης Aristotélēs, pronounced [aristotélɛːs]; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Lyceum, the Peripatetic school of philosophy, and the Aristotelian tradition. His writings cover many subjects including physics, biology, zoology, metaphysics, logic, ethics, aesthetics, poetry, theatre, music, rhetoric, psychology, linguistics, economics, politics, meteorology, geology and government. Aristotle provided a complex synthesis of the various philosophies existing prior to him. It was above all from his teachings that the West inherited its intellectual lexicon, as well as problems and methods of inquiry. As a result, his philosophy has exerted a unique influence on almost every form of knowledge in the West and it continues to be a subject of contemporary philosophical discussion.
