The Complete Aristotle (eng.)

desire
for its own sake (everything else being desired for the sake of
this), and if we do not choose everything for the sake of something
else (for at that rate the process would go on to infinity, so that
our desire would be empty and vain), clearly this must be the good
and the chief good. Will not the knowledge of it, then, have a
great influence on life? Shall we not, like archers who have a mark
to aim at, be more likely to hit upon what is right? If so, we must
try, in outline at least, to determine what it is, and of which of
the sciences or capacities it is the object. It would seem to
belong to the most authoritative art and that which is most truly
the master art. And politics appears to be of this nature; for it
is this that ordains which of the sciences should be studied in a
state, and which each class of citizens should learn and up to what
point they should learn them; and we see even the most highly
esteemed of capacities to fall under this, e.g. strategy,
economics, rhetoric; now, since politics uses the rest of the
sciences, and since, again, it legislates as to what we are to do
and what we are to abstain from, the end of this science must
include those of the others, so that this end must be the good for
man. For even if the end is the same for a single man and for a
state, that of the state seems at all events something greater and
more complete whether to attain or to preserve; though it is worth
while to attain the end merely for one man, it is finer and more
godlike to attain it for a nation or for city-states. These, then,
are the ends at which our inquiry aims, since it is political
science, in one sense of that term.
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3
    Our discussion will be adequate if it has as much clearness as
the subject-matter admits of, for precision is not to be sought for
alike in all discussions, any more than in all the products of the
crafts. Now fine and just actions, which political science
investigates, admit of much variety and fluctuation of opinion, so
that they may be thought to exist only by convention, and not by
nature. And goods also give rise to a similar fluctuation because
they bring harm to many people; for before now men have been undone
by reason of their wealth, and others by reason of their courage.
We must be content, then, in speaking of such subjects and with
such premisses to indicate the truth roughly and in outline, and in
speaking about things which are only for the most part true and
with premisses of the same kind to reach conclusions that are no
better. In the same spirit, therefore, should each type of
statement be received; for it is the mark of an educated man to
look for precision in each class of things just so far as the
nature of the subject admits; it is evidently equally foolish to
accept probable reasoning from a mathematician and to demand from a
rhetorician scientific proofs.
    Now each man judges well the things he knows, and of these he is
a good judge. And so the man who has been educated in a subject is
a good judge of that subject, and the man who has received an
all-round education is a good judge in general. Hence a young man
is not a proper hearer of lectures on political science; for he is
inexperienced in the actions that occur in life, but its
discussions start from these and are about these; and, further,
since he tends to follow his passions, his study will be vain and
unprofitable, because the end aimed at is not knowledge but action.
And it makes no difference whether he is young in years or youthful
in character; the defect does not depend on time, but on his
living, and pursuing each successive object, as passion directs.
For to such persons, as to the incontinent, knowledge brings no
profit; but to those who desire and act in accordance with a
rational principle knowledge about such matters will be of great
benefit.
    These remarks about the student, the sort of treatment to be
expected, and the purpose of the inquiry, may be taken as our
preface.
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4
    Let us resume our inquiry and state, in view of the fact that
all knowledge and every pursuit aims at some good, what it is that
we say political science aims at and what is the highest of all
goods achievable by action. Verbally there is very general
agreement; for both the general run of men and people of superior
refinement say that it is happiness, and identify living well and
doing well with being happy; but with regard to what