ABSTRACT
Aristotle rarely discusses the legislator as such. And when he more or less explicitly does so, he uses three different ways to describe the legislator’s work: the legislator is a scientist (epistêmôn), a doer of political actions (prattôn), and a craftsman (poiêtês). Commentators also rarely address the topic. This chapter attempts to offer a comprehensive account of Aristotle’s notion of a legislator and its resonances in the modern philosophy of law.
It begins by explaining why the legislator’s activity is genuinely practical, neither merely theoretical (for Aristotle is adamant that legislative theorists should be distinguished from those who perform the political action of legislating) nor productive (for the practical aspect of legislative activity has a certain normative priority over its productive aspect) (2.1). These findings will be consolidated thanks to a fresh text-centered analysis of legislative practical wisdom and legislative science in Nicomachean Ethics VI 8 (2.2). A fresh close reading of the final chapter of the Nicomachean Ethics (X 9) will reveal the idiosyncrasy of the experience required in order for someone to become an excellent legislator (2.3). The chapter closes by showing in which sense the legislator’s activity is a borderline one straddling the spheres of our practical, productive, and theoretical life (2.4).
