Aristotle

18 July 2008

Nature: what is the “natural” in Aristotle?

• The natural is…– What is not made by

human beings– What happens normally or

for the most part– What is innate or from birth

(genetic)– What is complete

• The not-natural is…– What is made by human

beings– What happens only

occasionally or by accident; what is impossible

– What is cultural or acquired– What is incomplete or

overgrown, due to some failure of development

Not made vs. made

Common vs. uncommon

Innate vs. acquired

Achievement of end-state vs. lack of achievement

Nature

• Nature in the third sense provides for Aristotle a standard to discriminate between the things that are “according to nature” and the things that are “against nature”

The polis

• The polis is the political community (the “state” in our terms)

• Is the polis natural? In what sense?

The polis and other communities

• For Aristotle, the polis needs to be distinguished both from – other natural communities (book 1) and from – other artificial communities (parts of book 3)

• How do we distinguish between political communities (i.e., states) and other communities?

The polis

• We distinguish the polis from other communities according to its end– What is the end of the polis?

Natural communities

• The family

Transition: the family as an incomplete community

Natural communities

• The household/the economic community

Transition: the household as an incomplete community

• But how is the household/farm going to defend itself? Is it going to make every implement it needs by itself?

The enlarged economic community

• In Aristotle’s time this is the village – the association of households

• What is the functional equivalent of this today?

Transition: the village as an incomplete community

• But is the enlarged economic community sufficient to meet all our needs?

The polis

• The polis is an association of economic communities for the sake of the good life (rather than merely life)

• The polis completes human nature

The good life

• What is the good life, and how is it different from mere life?

• Would most existing states provide for the “good life” in Aristotle’s view?

Polis and economic community

• Is the polis essentially identical to the (enlarged) economic community? – Yes: the end of the polis is the same as the

end of the economic community. The difference is quantitative.

– No: the end of the polis is different from the end of the economic community. The difference is qualitative.

Polis and economic community

• Is the knowledge or skills required to run a polis the same as the knowledge or skills required to run an economic community?

Communities and forms of rule

• Different communities require different forms of rule (and hence different skills)– The family is ruled politically (though

unequally, for Aristotle) – The economic community is ruled

despotically: some use others as tools for their own ends and not vice-versa

Economic community and slavery

• The economic community is a partnership for the sake of the necessities of life– It requires tools– Tools are animate or inanimate– Only intelligent machines could substitute for

animate tools– Animate tools can be animals or human

beings– Insofar as human beings are tools, they are

unfree

Human beings as tools

• What is the difference between the “wage-slave” and the actual slave?

For Aristotle, there is very little difference: in both cases a person is made into or (makes himself into) the tool of another (and to that extent he or she is unfree)

Economic community and “natural” tools

• Any proper community is for the benefit of both the ruler and the ruled– Hence the economic community should be for

the benefit of both animate tool (slave) and master

– But are there any human beings for who it would be good to be only the tool of another? (Are there natural slaves?)

Cows as animate tools

Natural slaves vs. slaves by convention

• A natural slave is somebody for whom it would be good to be merely the tool of another: closer to a cow than to a person– The natural slave does not have the ability to

deliberate about his/her own good

Natural slaves vs. slaves by convention

• Most slaves, however, are not natural– They are people who

have a sufficient ability to deliberate about their own good

• Slavery by convention is unjust

Are non-Greeks natural slaves?

Wealth and trade: other implications of Aristotle’s argument

vs.

Is trade justified?

• Aristotle is ambivalent about trade