The Political Nature of Humans
Introduction
From birth, humans are in constant interaction and communication with one another. As social creatures, humans cannot help but form groups, whether it be for survival or pleasure. These communities are a natural part of human life. They distinguish humans from other animals, which cannot intelligibly comprehend each other. According to Aristotle, these communities, and by association humans themselves, are political by nature (Politics I 2, Ethics I 7). The political life is the only route to a joyous life. In concordance with Aristotelian thought, living in political communities is a necessity for human flourishing.
Aristotle
Human beings are political animals and, as a result, they need to live in political communities in order to flourish. Before this can be said, “flourishing” must be defined. Aristotle describes the Greek concept of Eudaimonia, the Greek word for flourishing, and the basis to reach it in Nicomachean Ethics before explaining the necessity of political communities in order to attain Eudaimonia in his Politics.
Ethics
Aristotle believes in the concept of teleology, the doctrine that everything has an apparent purpose or goal. Hence, “Every craft and every method of inquiry and likewise every action and deliberate choice seems to seek some good” (Ethics I 3). All actions seeking some good lead to an end of ends. For humans, Aristotle claims this final end, and therefore the only real good, is Eudaimonia. Aristotle insists “[T]he good for man is an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue…” (Ethics I 7). The route to happiness lies in a life of arête, or virtue; however, there are certain caveats: 1. One must actively practice virtue, 2. One must know what virtue is, 3. One must take pleasure in virtue, and 4. One must be stable in their virtuous actions. To analyze this, one must know exactly what virtue is. Aristotle states “virtue is a purposive disposition, lying in a mean that is relative to us and determined by a rational principle, by that which a prudent man would use to determine it” (Ethics II 6). In laymen’s terms, virtue is taking the middle ground of extremes. One should not avoid any trait. Rather, one should practice all traits in moderation. For example, the virtue of courage lies between the extremes of cowardice and rashness. In Ethics there are two types of virtue: virtues of thinking and virtues of character. These virtues are not imbued in humans by nature, but by habituation. The “prudent man” must judge where moderation is through his life experiences and rational contemplation. “Contemplation is both the highest form of activity…, and also it is the most continuous…” (Ethics X 7). Like Plato and Socrates, Aristotle agrees with the tripartite of the soul: the contemplative, the appetitive, and the vegetative. The life of contemplation is the happiest life because the rational man can determine how to act in moderation, thus being virtuous. Leading from this, Aristotle examines the rational path to such happiness, predominately through political activity in a community, in Politics.
Politics
Because happiness is attained through political activity in a community, the community with the most political authority must be the key to a flourishing life and must be sought after. The formation of communities is a natural phenomenon because humans are social creatures. “Man is the only animal she [nature] endowed with the gift of speech” (Politics I 2). Aristotle creates his argument with a historical account of communities. First, individual humans come together in pairs: for they could not exist alone. Man and woman join together in order to reproduce. Then, the slave comes to the master in order to survive; only the master has the rational contemplation skills to make decisions for the slave. Third, the household arises from those communities in order to serve everyday functions. Consequently, several households combine, forming villages. Finally, the city-state emerges from several villages, where it finally attains self-sufficiency. Since “every community is established for the sake of some GOOD…the community…that encompasses all the others aims highest…has the most authority of all,” the city-state holds the most (political) authority (Politics I 1). As such, the citizen of the city-state lives the happiest life. Citizenship is congruent with the holding of public office and the administration of Justice. Slaves are excluded because they are regarded more so as property than as actual humans. The identity of the specific city-state rests on its constitution; six types of constitutions exist for city-states: monarchy, aristocracy, polity, and their antitheses, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy. Because the rational man is just, and the rational man is the happy man, the final three forms of government listed cannot lead to human flourishing. A truly just government must have distributive justice and an accountable ruling class. Benefits must be conferred to citizens based on their contributions to the community and law must be held above the governing body. In this way, the number of happy citizens is maximized, edging closer to the end goal of Eudaimonia. The last idea proposed by Aristotle is his support of a middle class. The presence of a strong middle class cushions the class struggle between the rich and the poor. The middle class prevents revolutions, thereby extending the longevity of the city-state. Because an individual, and therefore a state, must be stable in their decisions in order to be virtuous, the stabilization of the city-state by the middle class is essential. The city-state with a polity is the community with the most political authority.
Summary
The virtuous life is one of moderation. It takes a human with a balanced, rational soul in order to make decisions that lead to moderation. Because the practice of constant virtue leads to Eudaimonia, the rational man leads the happy life. However, communities are a natural part of human life. Because such communities are unavoidable in order to be self-sufficient, rational thought will lead to the city-state. Once the city-state exists with a just constitution and government, which a rational led soul would seek, the rational man must participate in politics in order to make the city-state virtuous. In summary, humans must live and participate in the city-state for any chance at flourishing.
Critique
Several flaws seem to appear as Aristotle’s arguments are examined with a finer lens: from how communities are natural, to the paradox of the just human; however, Aristotle addresses each of these supposed gaps of logic with gusto and precision. His opponents target the natural state of a community as the weak point of his argument. “Therefore, everyone naturally has the impulse for such a [political] community, but the person who first established [it] is the cause of very great benefits.” Here, according to Aristotle’s own words, the community is the invention of human intelligence. In Politics I, Chapter 3, he rebuts these opponents. “The proof that the state is a creation of nature and prior to the individual is that that the individual, when isolated, is not self-sufficing; and therefore he is like a part in relation to the whole” (Politics I 3). Naturally, human beings come together in these communities in order to achieve natural human ends, but the lawmaker then completes the work, providing the city-state with a constitution so it can be just and virtuous. In this way, Aristotle avoids any holes in his theory of creation: things either exist by nature or by craft. The next attack from his opponents stems from the paradox of just humans. In Aristotle’s view, to be just one must perform just acts, but looking at his requirements for virtue, one must knowingly perform just acts in order to become just. Aristotle uses the analogy of the child to defend himself against this superficial fallacy. Specifically the fourth requirement of being virtuous (being stable in one’s virtuous actions) proves his point. Any “just” act did not come from the child’s character. The child is merely mimicking the actions of others, and therefore is not actually virtuous. But just by mimicking these actions, the child develops character through the process of habituation. As the child grows, it will become rational through education and it will understand the justice within these actions. This once again connects reason and virtue, and emphasizes the importance that Aristotle places on education. Justice is not a natural occurrence within man, and this provides an adequate explanation. Aristotle correctly defends the need for humans to live and participate in political communities in order to flourish.
Conclusion
In Nicomachean Ethics and Politics Aristotle describes the end goal of the individual and the community, and the methods of reaching that end. Aristotle proves the natural existence of communities and explains their relation to the individual. For an individual to flourish, according to Aristotle’s definition, one must act virtuously following the four requirements. Aristotle concludes that to act virtuously in the inevitable city-state community, one must engage in politics. Human beings need to live in political communities in order to flourish.