* Translation and notes by Hugh Tredennick, extracted from his revised edition of the The Ethics of Aristotle (Penguin Classics, 1976), p. 342. On note 2, see further pp. 34–5 above.

1. This concluding passage was obviously written to connect the Ethics to the Politics; but written by whom? Opinions have been sharply divided. The implication that Plato had nothing of importance to say about education by legislation, or about types of constitution and their changes, seems perverse and is in fact inconsistent with the actual procedure in the Politics, where Plato’s views are nearly always traceable as underlying A.’s thought, and often explicitly criticized or rejected. At the same time the fact that the outlined programme does not correspond very accurately with the actual treatment may tell for no less than against authenticity, because an ‘editor’ might have been expected to produce a neater and more convincing link. The problem can only be stated here: it does not yet seem to have been solved.

2. According to tradition A. wrote 158 such Constitutions, of which the Constitution of Athens is the only survivor.