Justifying novelty in political theory: Aristotle on political and legal innovation

In Aristotle’s political thought, innovation is “acceptable” when it is achieved in the name of the common good and when the benefit is great. Against the notion that political and legal innovation may be either absolutely beneficial or absolutely harmful, Aristotle discusses concrete instances such as the size of the benefit the innovation produces, the aim of whoever proposes the new action and the need to exercise political control over every innovation. The lexical and conceptual dyad represented by the verbs kainotomein (to seek the new) and kinein (to change radically) allows us to follow Aristotle’s thinking and to identify the univocal result it reaches, both when it addresses theoretical proposals for innovation as well as examples of innovation that have already been implemented.