Carles Jose Mestre

In this paper, we aim to show the way in which a kind of moral badness, what we call ordinary badness, could be understood from Aristotelian ethical writings. First, we document the recognition of this type of badness in the Aristotelian source, which is seen in his presentation of “hoi polloi” (the Many). In particular, it is shown that “hoi polloi” are “phauloi”, one of the (specific) predicates that Aristotle uses to refer to moral badness. Secondly, we highlight the methodological function of “hoi polloi” in the description of incontinence and self-indulgence, and we show how the Many could be considered as a new class within the question of moral effort. Finally, and related to the result of the previous analysis, we document what could be an aporia in the Aristotelian description of the population of the polis, which brings us to join Ian Morris in his global understanding of Aristotelian political philosophy.

We will, hereby, deal with the meaning of the word «identity» from a philosophical perspective particularly related with Politics. The main aim of the paper is to determine in what sense the idea of a European political identity would be meaningful, which first of all will lead us to ascertain the meaning of the expression «political identity». It will be defended that a political identity is primarily collective, and that the limits of a specific political collective are defined by a process of reciprocal identification between individuals, regarding typically historical facts: respect of the past (not necessarily common), cultural relationship in a present time (consequently shared), and projection to the future (from an individual commitment). From this analysis, it will be showed to what extent we can pertinently refer to a «European identity» instead of «European identities», and this regarding the idea of «people», and also paying attention to the matter of the political form.