A Democracy of Distinction: Aristotle and the Work of Politics

Extract

A Democracy of Distinction: Aristotle and the Work of Politics. By Jill Frank. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005. 208p. $49.00 cloth, $19.00 paper.

Jill Frank's book seeks to make Aristotle's political philosophy “available for democratic political practice” (p. 8). Her use of Aristotle in this regard resembles most closely that of Hannah Arendt, to whom she refers in her opening paragraph and whose treatment of work, action, and the vita activa would appear to have influenced Frank's discussion of the “work” of politics referred to in her subtitle. But in bringing out the Aristotle who “harbors democratic possibilities,” the author also draws support, as well as distinguishes herself, from scholars such as Martha Nussbaum, Stephen Salkever, Fred Miller, Arlene Saxonhouse, Mary Nichols, and Alastair MacIntyre, who have, in very different ways, sought the aid of Aristotle to inform contemporary political life. A Democracy of Distinction thus engages a student of the ancient Academy in a serious conversation with the modern Academy. As Frank rightly says in closing, “Aristotle's ethical and political lessons are no less timely for us than they were for fourth century Athens” (p. 180). By her own admission, the lessons she draws may not represent the view of the “definitive Aristotle,” but they do represent, she suggests, his effort both to reform fourth-century Athens and to lay the ground for a timeless possibility: a “democracy of distinction” that she sincerely and earnestly seeks to promote (pp. 8, 139–42).