r sense, the science of governing the political community:
It is of critical importance to recognize that ethics forms an integral part of political science in this broad sense, and that Aristotle's ethical writings are evidently conceived not as independent treatises but as prolegomena to a study of politics. Any discussion of Aristotelian political science would therefore be incomplete without extended attention to the teaching of the ethical treatises and the relationship of that teaching to the Politics (Strauss and Cropsey 121-122).
Political science studies the good for man and for the state. Determining what is the good for man, however, is not a mathematically solvable question. For one thing, political science examines this question by examining human action, and human action cannot be determined or predicted with mathematical certitude. Aristotle discusses the difference between ethics and mathematics, and they differ because mathematics starts from general principles and argues to conclusions, while ethics begins with the conclusions in the form of actual moral judgments of human beings. Ethics of necessity must assume that there are natural tendencies in human beings which can be discerned and that, if followed, can lead to a moral structure of harmony and proportion by recognizing what is important and what is not.
For Aristotle, we begin with a capacity for goodness of character and for producing the good in society, but what happens next determines how effective this will be. This means that the capacity must be developed. Again, Aristotle sees certain good in nature and in the elements of nature placed within us but also feels that education and social learning determine how that capacity will be used and developed in life. Political science offers a means of analyzing the good and how to achieve it. Aristotle holds that the state is a natural object and that man is by nature a political animal. Aris...