To criticize a particular subject, therefore, a man must have
been trained in that subject: to be a good critic generally, he must have had an all-round
education. Hence the young are not fit to be students of Political Science.
1 For they
have no experience of life and conduct, and it is these that supply the premises and
subject matter of this branch of philosophy.
[
6]
And moreover
they are led by their feelings; so that they will study the subject to no purpose or
advantage, since the end of this science is not knowledge but action.
[
7]
And it makes no difference whether they are young in years or immature
in character: the defect is not a question of time, it is because their life and its
various aims are guided by feeling; for to such persons their knowledge is of no use, any
more than it is to persons of defective self-restraint.
2 But
Moral Science may be of great value to those who guide their desires and actions by
principle.
[
8]
Let so much suffice by way of introduction as to the student of the subject, the spirit
in which our conclusions are to be received, and the object that we set before
us.4.
To resume, inasmuch as all studies and undertakings are directed to the attainment of
some good, let us discuss what it is that we pronounce to be the aim of Politics, that is,
what is the highest of all the goods that action can achieve.
[2]
As far as the name goes, we may almost say that the great majority of
mankind are agreed about this; for both the multitude and persons of refinement speak of
it as Happiness,3 and conceive
‘the good life’ or ‘doing well’4 to be the same thing
