Aristotle’s Politics is built on the back of his Ethics: The good life presupposes the virtuous life. However, in order to survive, free societies sometimes have to violate the very values they profess to uphold. They have to wage war and kill innocents; they have to imprison enemies and sometimes torture them. In extreme situations, they have to suspend civil liberties, even shut down traditional institutions—all to prevent something worse. To the just belongs injustice. All the same, Machiavelli knew there was no guarantee that people will put up with the measures that are meant to save them
...more
