The Complete Works of Aristotle: excerpts

The Complete Works of Aristotle: The Revised Oxford Translation, Edited by Jonathan Barnes, vol 2, Politics

Book 1

“Every state is a community of some kind, and every community is established with a view to some good; for everyone always acts in order to obtain that which they think good. But, if all communities aim at some good, the state or political community, which is the highest of all, and which embraces all the rest, aims at good in a great degree than any other, and at the highest good.” p. 1986

“...when several families are united, and the association aims at something more than the supply of daily needs, the first society to be formed is the village...when several villages are united in a single complete community, large enough to be nearly or quite self-sufficing , the state comes into existence, originating in the bare needs of life, and continuing in existence for the sake of a good life...And therefore, if the earlier forms of society are natural, so is the state, for it is the end of them, and the nature of a thing is its end....Hence it is evident that the state is a creation of nature, and that man is by nature a political animal.” p. 1987

“Further, the state is by nature clearly prior to the family and to the individual, since the whole is of necessity prior to the part....” p. 1988

“The proof that the state is a creation of nature and prior to the individual is that the individual, when isolated, is not self-sufficing: and therefore he is like a part in relation to the whole. But he who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or god: he is no part of a state.” p.1988

“But is there any one thus intended by nature to be a slave, and for whom such a condition is expedient and right, or rather is not all slavery a violation of nature?

There is no difficulty in answering this question, on grounds both of reason and of fact. For that some should rule and others be ruled is a thing not only necessary, but expedient; from the hour of their birth, some are marked out for subjection, others for rule.” pp. 1989-1990

“We have already said, in the first part of this treatise, when discussing household management and the rule of a master, that man is by nature a political animal. And therefore, men, even when they do not require one another's help desire to live together, not but that they are also brought together by their common interests in so far as they each attain to any measure of well-being. This is certainly the chief end, both of individuals and of states.” Book III, p. 2029

“The first governments were kingships, probably for this reason, because of old when

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cities were small, men of eminent excellence were few. Further, they were made kings because they were benefactors, and benefits can only be bestowed by good men. But when many persons equal in merit arose, no longer enduring the pre-eminence of one, they desired to have a commonwealth, and set up a constitution. The ruling class soon deteriorated and enriched themselves out of the public treasury; riches became the path to honour, and so oligarchies naturally gave up. These passed into tyrannies and tyrannies into democracies; for love of gain in the ruling classes was always tending to diminish their number, and so to strengthen the masses, who in the end set up their masters and established democracies.” Book III, p. 2041

“In our original discussion about governments we divided them into three true forms: kingly rule, aristocracy, and constitutional government, and three corresponding perversions – tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy....That which is the perversion of the first and most divine (kingly) is necessarily the worst....a royal rule...must exist by virtue of some great personal superiority in the king, so tyranny, which is the worst of governments, is necessarily the farthest removed from a well-constituted form; oligarchy is little better, for it is a long way from aristocracy, and democracy is the most tolerable of the three.” Book IV, p. 2046

“For polity or constitutional government may be described generally as a fusion of oligarchy and democracy; but the term is usually applied to those forms of government which incline towards democracy, and the term aristocracy to those which incline towards oligarchy, because birth and education are commonly the accompaniments of wealth. Moreover, the rich already possess the external advantages the want of which is a temptation to crime, and hence they are called noblemen and gentlemen, And inasmuch as aristocracy seeks to give predominance to the best of the citizens, people say also of oligarchies that they are composed of noblemen and gentlemen.” Book IV, pp. 2053-4

“...the middle class is least likely to shrink from rule, or to be over-ambitious for it, both of which are injuries to the state. Again, those who have too much of the goods of fortune, strength, wealth, friends, and the like are neither willing nor able to submit to authority. The evil begins at home; for when they are boys, by reason of the luxury in which they are brought up, they never learn, even at school, the habit of obedience. On the other hand, the very poor, who are in the opposite extreme, are too degraded.
So that the one class cannot obey, and can only rule despotically; the other knows not how to command and must be ruled like slaves. Thus arises a city, not of freemen, but of masters and slaves, the one despising, the other envying...Thus it is manifest that the best political community is formed by citizens of the middle class, and that those states

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are likely to be well-administered in which the middle class is large, and stronger if possible than both the other classes...for the addition of the middle class turns the scale, and prevents either of the extremes from being dominant. Great then is the good

fortune of a state in which the citizens have a moderate and sufficient property....” Book IV, pp. 2056-7

“The basis of a democratic state is liberty; which, according to the common opinion of men, can only be enjoyed in such a state – this they affirm to be the great end of every democracy. One principle of liberty is for all to rule and be ruled in turn, and indeed democratic justice is the application of numerical not proportionate equality; whence it follows that the majority must be supreme, and that whatever the majority approve must be the end and the just. Every citizen, it is said, must have equality, and therefore in a democracy the poor have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme. This then, is one note of liberty which all democrats affirm to be the principle of their state. Another is that a man should live as he likes. This, they say, is the mark of liberty, since, on the other hand, not to live as a man likes is the mark of a slave.” Book IV, p. 2091