Judge by the End
The nature of a thing is what it becomes in its most complete state.
How it helps
It directs attention to the purpose of an institution rather than only its origin.
Understand in about 5 minutes
Politics
Aristotle treats the city as a natural community whose purpose is not mere survival but the good life of its citizens.
Idea map
The book in 5 ideas
City for the Good Life Aristotle treats the city as a natural community, built on the household, whose purpose is the good life and whose forms are judged by the common good.
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Natural Growth
The city grows from household and village by a natural impulse to associate.- Household The household comes first.
- Village Families join into a village.
- City as Whole The whole comes before the part.
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Household & Wealth
The household has its own relations of rule and its own art of acquiring necessities.- Domestic Rule Master, husband, father.
- Natural Slave: Slave as living instrument.
- Rule by Nature: The better governs the lesser.
- Getting Wealth Acquisition has natural limits.
- Natural Provision: Provision for real needs.
- Money & Trade: Coin born of exchange.
- Usury: Money from money, detested.
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End: Good Life
The city exists not for survival alone but so that citizens may live well.- Beyond Survival More than mere survival.
- Political Animal Man is a political animal.
- Justice Justice orders the state.
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Citizenship
A citizen is defined by sharing in the offices of the state, not by birth or place.- Not Residence Residence is not enough.
- Sharing Office Hold a share in office.
- Varies by Form Citizenship shifts by regime.
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Forms of Rule
Governments are classified by how many rule and for whose benefit.- Right Forms Right rule serves all.
- Corruptions Corrupt rule serves the rulers.
- Common Good The common good is the test.
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Mental models
3 ways of thinking you can use
The Common Good Test
Ask whether power is exercised for the whole community or only for those who hold it.
How it helps
It gives a single criterion for telling sound government from its corruptions.
Whole and Parts
The city is a whole whose members are understood through their place within it.
How it helps
It frames individual and household within the larger purpose of the political community.
Summary
The essence in plain English
Politics opens by treating the city as the highest form of human association, one that grows naturally from smaller societies. The union of male and female forms the household, households join into villages, and villages combine into the city, which Aristotle regards as a natural production.
From this Aristotle draws his claim that man is by nature a political animal. The gift of speech, by which we express what is just and unjust, shows that we are made for a shared life governed by law, and that one who needs no community is either above or below humanity.
The city does not exist merely for survival or trade. It is first founded so that people may live, but it continues so that they may live well. Justice is treated as a political virtue, the standard by which the state is ordered.
Turning to the state itself, Aristotle asks what a citizen is. He concludes that a citizen is not made by residence or descent but by holding a share in the judicial and executive functions of government, so that the meaning of citizenship shifts with the form of the constitution.
He then classifies constitutions by how many rule and for whose benefit. Rule by one, few, or many for the common good gives kingship, aristocracy, and constitutional government; each has a corrupt counterpart in tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy, which serve only the rulers rather than the whole.
Key concepts
Terms to know
- The Natural City
- The city arises from household and village by natural growth, not by mere convention.
- Why it matters: It grounds Aristotle's whole account of government in human nature rather than accident.
- The Good Life
- The city's purpose is not survival or wealth but the well-lived life of its members.
- Why it matters: It supplies the standard by which constitutions are finally to be judged.
- Citizenship
- A citizen is one who shares in the judicial and deliberative offices of the state.
- Why it matters: It ties membership in the city to participation in ruling rather than to birth or place.
Selected Quotes
Short passages from the source
man is naturally a political animal
justice is a political virtue, by the rules of it the state is regulated
a city is a community of freemen
Source
Text used for this page
Source text: Project Gutenberg edition of Politics: A Treatise on Government by Aristotle.
HTML text: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/6762/pg6762-images.html
Project Gutenberg states that this ebook is for use at no cost with almost no restrictions in the United States and most other parts of the world, subject to local law.
Composed c. 340 BCE; the Project Gutenberg edition uses William Ellis's translation.