The nature of 'the best constitutional regime' and virtuous friendship in Aristotle

Aristotle discusses the 'best regime' in Books 7 and 8 of Politics. On the other hand, the 'best regime' reflects the intellectual coherence among Aristotle's works (1996, 2012, 2014, 2017, 2020). The fundamental principles that dominate these works (Politics, Nicomachean Ethics, Physics and Metaphysics) are the concepts of 'nature' (physis) and 'purpose, end' (telos). Telos means "completion, fulfillment, reaching the end" (Peters 1967: 369). Aristotle uses telos in the sense that every natural being carries its principle of existence within its own nature. In fact, 'nature' (physis) is this principle itself. Aristoteles (2014) defines nature as the source of internal movement. His political thought is based on the idea that humans are political beings by nature and strive to live around a common purpose (good life). Aristotle's placement of physis and telos at the foundation of his entire philosophy brings together the best regime and virtuous friendship. This is because human nature and telos cannot be explained by human mortality. Human nature is the capacity for thinking, understanding, and making ethical and esthetic judgments. The telos of humans is precisely to express these capacities. According to Aristotle, humans are naturally inclined to live together, and politics is necessary to maintain this social order. "Politics strives to make citizens virtuous and good people, and to enable them to perform good actions" (N.E., 1199b30-35). Politics is the science of practical good concerning the polis (city-state), which is formed by the union of various human associations (koinonia). The polis is the highest unit formed by the unification of villages around common purposes (Pol., 1252b27). In this context, the aim of politics is to organize people (anthropos) in the polis around common purposes and to ensure the best life and happiness (eudaimonia) for them. The natural capacity of humans to establish a political community implies that they also have the capacity to form the best political regime. This is because the aim of humans is to achieve the best life or happiness. However, the best regime and happy life are only possible through the development of both moral and intellectual virtues. This, in turn, relies on the mutual communication of virtuous friends. For Aristotle, the happiness of individuals is identical to the happiness of the polis (Pol., 1324a5) and is formed by the union of similar individuals (1328a33). This similarity involves the moral virtue of individuals (N.E., 1159b). Virtue involves considering the common interests of the community and engaging in appropriate activities and actions to promote these interests. To be virtuous means to find balance and the mean, which ensures individual happiness and good living (1106b15-30). There is a direct relationship between the goodness of morally similar individuals and the governance of the polis under the best constitutional regime. Aristotle asserts that individuals, both individually and collectively, share the same goal, and thus the definition of the best person and the best constitution should be the same (Pol., 1334a11). Consequently, for Aristotle, 'good life' and 'happiness' rely on virtuous activities and actions, and this is achievable through the best constitutional regime (1323a38). To develop their moral and intellectual virtues and to perfect their potentials, individuals must establish the 'best constitutional regime'. Aristotle explains the best constitutional regime, composed of virtuous individuals, with an ethical principle that regulates the minds and attitudes of its members, and he uses the concept of 'friendship' to establish a good order of life among people (Hong 2013: 82). Aristoteles (2012: 158/9) defines moral similarity also as virtuous friendship (N.E., 1156b-1157a). In this study, 'virtuous friendship', which expresses the partnership of morally similar individuals, is conceptualized as 'the nature of the best constitutional regime'. This study argues that there is a twofold activity (energeia) from the best constitutional regime to virtuous friendship and from virtuous friendship to the best constitutional regime. This claim is based on a logic woven within the concepts of 'nature', 'human nature', and 'purpose, end' (telos). The perfection of telos and the perfection of virtuous friendship ultimately become identical.

- The paper argues for an identity between the nature of Aristotle’s best constitutional regime and virtuous friendship: the best regime is the perfect end (telos), and the perfection of telos is realized as virtuous friendship. - The polis is natural and constitutes the human telos; human nature (rationality, speech, practical wisdom) is perfected in political community through virtuous activity aimed at the good life (eudaimonia). - Correct regimes (serving the common good) versus deviant regimes (serving rulers’ interests) are distinguished; ranked from worst to best: Tyranny, Oligarchy, Democracy, Republic (politeia), Aristocracy, Monarchy (Pol., 1279a32–1279b4). - The best regime is characterized by happiness and virtue: virtue safeguards and orders external and bodily goods and is the central criterion of the best life and constitution (Pol., 1323a–b, 1339b31). - Education and legislation are essential: legislators in the best regime must cultivate moral and intellectual virtues, structuring education around the divided soul and life (work/leisure; compulsory/noble), aiming at habituation in virtue (Pol., 1332a–1337b). - Friendship is a natural partnership (koinonia) grounded in activity (energeia, praxis). Among utility, pleasure, and virtue friendships, virtuous friendship is highest: stable, reciprocal love of the good, equality-based, and justice-infused (N.E., 1156–1169; E.E., 1236–1243). - Equality is central: Aristotle connects numerical and proportional equality to household and regime types; political friendship rests on numerical equality and reciprocity, aligning with social justice aimed at citizens’ happiness (E.E., 1241–1243). - There is a bidirectional dynamic: the best constitutional regime cultivates virtuous friendships, and virtuous friendships sustain and realize the best regime’s political principles through participatory, equality-based governance. - Civic ethics: a good life is done in common; virtuous friends are “second selves,” enabling mutual moral and intellectual activation, critique, and support toward the good life. - The naturalness of the polis does not justify bad regimes; rather, aligning the regime with human telos (virtue and happiness) is required, and this alignment is articulated through virtuous friendship.

The paper addresses the question of what constitutes Aristotle’s best constitutional regime by grounding it in his broader metaphysics of nature (physis), form, and telos. It argues that because human nature is rational and political, its telos is fulfilled in the polis through virtuous activity ordered to eudaimonia. Happiness and virtue, the defining aims of the best life, are realized interpersonally as virtuous friendship. Thus, the ethical structure of the best regime is identical with the structure of virtuous friendship: equality, justice, reciprocity, and mutual activation of moral and intellectual excellences. This framing clarifies how Aristotle’s regime theory (classification of constitutions, emphasis on the common good) connects to his ethics: legislators must educate citizens for virtue; citizens’ excellence constitutes the regime’s excellence; and political friendship (based on equality and reciprocity) links personal virtue to civic justice. The bidirectional energeia between regime and friendship explains both the formation of cities out of utility and their perfection in a community of equals committed to the good life. The significance is a civic-ethical model where justice and friendship converge: equality among citizens grounds both just institutions and the highest form of friendship, making the best regime the institutional expression of virtuous friendship.

Aristotle does not relate humanity's pursuit of the best life solely to its nature in a state of given circumstances, stagnation, or merely physical form. According to him, humans achieve their inherent principle or telos by developing their character and intellectual virtues, and establishing a regime that corresponds to these virtues. Because humans are inherently active and engaged, the state of activity is essential to achieving the aim of the best life. The natural emergence of the polis does not legitimize any existing bad regime (such as tyranny, oligarchy, or democracy). The polis exists naturally, but the regime governing it can be adapted to align with the good and happy life inherent in human nature. In Politics, Book VII, Aristotle considers the best constitutional regime discussed as a manifestation of humanity's natural pursuit of happiness and the best life. Establishing virtuous friendships forms the basis of the best constitution, and in turn, the best constitution facilitates the formation of virtuous friendships. As citizens within a polis fulfill their natural functions within the political community's boundaries, they begin to form bonds of friendship governed by principles of justice. For Aristotle, mutual trust among friends ensures the realization of justice, creating a genuine partnership or community. In such a community, citizens strive not only to secure mutual benefits but also to establish the best life as required by justice. Aristotle does not consider friendship as a subset of justice. This is because the best constitutional regime is a community of equals, which also defines the fundamental characteristic of justice within the polis. Equality among people signifies friendship, and friendship is justice. For Aristotle, a friend is a good person, where "good" encompasses the character and intellectual virtues of friends, namely virtuous friendship. The aim of virtuous friendship is to live together a "good life". The formula for the good life emerges in the best constitutional regime because if the polis's purpose is to ensure the best and happiest life, then the happy life signifies the best constitutional regime. There is an identity between the nature of the polis, human nature, and the best constitutional regime. In a sense, the telos or end of the polis is the best constitutional regime, and what articulates the constitutional regime as the telos of the polis is virtuous friendship.