Zum Zusammenhang von Politik, Ethik und Ökonomik bei Aristoteles / On the relationship of politics, ethics and economics in the works of Aristoteles

In Aristotle’s “best state” the economy is governed by political prescriptions which on their part are determined by ethical principles. Aristotle tries to his sentences on empirical experiences as far as this approach is compatible with his ethical axioms. By refusing both Plato’s idea of women’s and children’s community as well as common property for the ruling classes Aristotle is led by the idea of natural law and by empirical experiences of public good problems. However his foundation of slavery is not based on the empirically tested principle of amour but on his ethical prescription that the citizens in his best state should devote their whole time and energy to the common wealth so that their daily business has to be done by slaves. In his famous deduction on the prohibition of interest Aristotle’s ethics gains the victory over the thinker Aristotle. The analysis of the aristotelian concept shows finally that his ethics offends against general ethical principles when it excludes reality, so as the social policy of today becomes unsocial when economic laws are neglected. Yet not the whole Aristotle should be banned to the Orcus; this article rather pleads for relying not on his ethical principles as it is done until now designing institutional arrangements, but on his empirical perceptions.