China

ARISTOTLE

Politics

Translated, with Introduction and Notes,

by

C.D.C. Reeve

Hackett Publishing Company Indianapolis I Cambridge

Aristotle: 384-322 B.C.

Copyright © 1998 by Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

09 08 07 06 4 5 6 7 8 9

Cover and interior design by Dan Kirklin

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Aristotle [Politics. English] Politics/ Aristotle; translated, with introduction and notes, by

C.D.C. Reeve.

p. em. Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN 0-87220-389-1 (cloth). ISBN 0-87220-388-3 (pbk.)

1. Political science-Early works to 1800. I. Reeve, C.D.C.,

1948-- . II. Title. JC7l .A41R44 1998 320'.01'1-dc21

ISBN-13: 978-0-87220-389-1 (cloth) ISBN-13: 978-0-87220-388-4 (pbk.)

97-46398 CIP

ARISTOTLE

Politics

Translated, with Introduction and Notes,

by

C.D.C. Reeve

Hackett Publishing Company Indianapolis I Cambridge

Aristotle: 384-322 B.C.

Copyright © 1998 by Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

09 08 07 06 4 5 6 7 8 9

Cover and interior design by Dan Kirklin

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Aristotle [Politics. English] Politics/ Aristotle; translated, with introduction and notes, by

C.D.C. Reeve.

p. em. Includes bibliographical references and indexes. ISBN 0-87220-389-1 (cloth). ISBN 0-87220-388-3 (pbk.) 1. Political science--Early works to 1800. I . Reeve, C.D.C.,

1948- II. Title.

JC71 .A41R44 1998 320'.01 ' 1-dc21

ISBN-13: 978-0-87220-389-1 (cloth) ISBN-13: 978-0-87220-388-4 (pbk.)

97-46398 CIP

BooK I

Chapter 1

We see that every CITY-STATE is a COMMUNITY of some sort, and that 1252" every community is established for the sake of some GOOD (for everyone performs every ACTION for the sake of what he takes to be good). Clearly, then, while every community aims at some good, the community that has the most AUTHORITY of all and encompasses all the others aims 5

highest, that is to say, at the good that has the most authority of all. This community is the one called a city-state, the community that is political. 1

Those,Z then, who think that the positions of STATESMAN, KING,

HOUSEHOLD MANAGER, and MASTER of slaves are the same, are not cor­ rect. For they hold that each of these differs not in kind, but only in whether the subjects ruled are few or many: that if, for example, some­ one rules few people, he is a master; if more, a household manager; if still more, he has the position of statesman or king-the assumption 10 being that there is no difference between a large household and a small city-state. As for the positions of statesman and king, they say that someone who is in charge by himself has the position of king, whereas someone who follows the principles of the appropriate SCIENCE, ruling IS

and being ruled in turn, has the position of statesman. But these claims are not true. What I am saying will be clear, if we examine the matter ac-

1 . kuriotate koinonia: the most sovereign community, the one with the most au­ thority, is the city-state, because all the other communities are encompassed (periechein) by it or are its parts, so that the goods for whose sake they are formed are pursued in part for the sake of the good for which it is formed (see 1.2). These subcommunities include households, villages, religious societies, etc. The good with the most authority is HAPPINESS, since everything else is pursued in part for its sake, while it is pursued solely for its own sake. The science with the most authority, STATESMANSHIP, directs the entire city-state toward happiness. A more detailed version of this opening argument is given in NE 1. 1-2. Here it is being adapted to define what a city-state is.

2 . Plato, Statesman 258e-26l a. Compare Xenophon, Memorabilia III. iv. l 2, III.vi. l4 .

2 Politics I

cording to the method of investigation that has guided us elsewhere. For as in other cases, a composite has to be analyzed until we reach things that are incomposite, since these are the smallest parts of the whole, so if

20 we also examine the parts that make up a city-state, we shall see better both how these differ from each other, and whether or not it is possible to gain some expertise in connection with each of the things we have mentioned.3

Chapter 2

If one were to see how these things develop naturally from the begin- 25 ning, one would, in this case as in others, get the best view of them.

First, then, those who cannot exist without each other necessarily form a couple, as [ I ] female and male do for the sake of procreation (they do not do so from DELIBERATE CHOICE, but, like other animals and plants, because the urge to leave behind something of the same kind as them-

30 selves is natural), and [2] as a natural ruler and what is naturally ruled do for the sake of survival. For if something is capable of rational foresight, it is a natural ruler and master, whereas whatever can use its body to labor is ruled and is a natural SLAVE. That is why the same thing is ben­ eficial for both master and slave.4

There is a natural distinction, of course, between what is female and 12521 what is servile. For, unlike the blacksmiths who make the Delphian

knife, nature produces nothing skimpily, but instead makes a single thing for a single TASK, because every tool will be made best if it serves to perform one task rather than many. 5 Among non-Greeks, however, a

5 WOMAN and a slave occupy the same position. The reason is that they do not have anything that naturally rules; rather their community consists of a male and a female slave. That is why our poets say "it is proper for Greeks to rule non-Greeks,"6 implying that non-Greek and slave are in nature the same.

The first thing to emerge from these two communities7 is a house-

3. That is to say, do household managers, masters, statesmen, and kings each employ a different type of technical expertise in ruling? Expertise (technikon) is technical knowledge of the sort embodied in a CRAFT or SCIENCE.

4. This claim is qualified at 1278b32-37 and elaborated upon in 1 .5-7. 5 . A Delphian knife seems to have been a multipurpose and cheaply made tool

of some sort. See 1299bJO and note. 6. See Euripides, Iphigenia in Au/is 1266, 1400. 7 . The communities of husband and wife, master and slave.

Chapter 2 3

hold, so that Hesiod is right when he said in his poem, "First and fore- 10

most: a house, a wife, and an ox for the plow."8 For an ox is a poor man's servant. The community naturally constituted to satisfy everyday needs, then, is the household; its members are called "meal-sharers" by Charondas and "manger-sharers" by Epimenides the Cretan.9 But the first community constituted out of several households for the sake of 1 S

satisfying needs other than everyday ones is a village. As a COLONY or offshoot from a household, 10 a village seems to be par­

ticularly natural, consisting of what some have called "sharers of the same milk," sons and the sons of sons. 1 1 That is why city-states were originally ruled by kings, as nations still are. For they were constituted out of people who were under kingships; for in every household the el- 20

dest rules as a king. And so the same holds in the offshoots, because the villagers are blood relatives. 12 This is what Homer is describing when he says: "Each one lays down the law for his own wives and children."13 For they were scattered about, and that is how people dwelt in the distant past. The reason all people say that the gods too are ruled by a king is that they themselves were ruled by kings in the distant past, and some still are. Human beings model the shapes of the gods on their own, and 25

do the same to their way of life as well. A complete community constituted out of several villages, once it

reaches the limit of total SELF-SUFFICIENCY, practically speaking, is a city-state. It comes to be for the sake of living, but it remains in exis­ tence for the sake of living well. That is why every city-state exists by NATURE, 14 since the first communities do. For the city-state is their end, 30

and nature is an end; for we say that each thing's nature-for example, that of a human being, a horse, or a household-is the character it has when its coming-into-being has been completed. Moreover, that for the

8. Works and Days 405. 9. Charondas was a sixth-century legislator from Catana in Chalcidice in the

southern part of Macedonia. Epimenides was a religious teacher of the late sixth and early fifth century. The works from which Aristotle is quoting are lost.

10 . See Plato, Laws 776a-b. 1 1 . Plato, Laws 681 b. 12. A somewhat different explanation is given at 1286b8-1 1 . 1 3 . Iliad X.1 14-15. To lay down the law (themisteuein) i s to give judgments in

particular cases about what is right or fitting (themis). 14. This claim and the argument Aristotle is about to give for it are discussed in

the Introduction xlviii-lix.

4 Politics I

sake of which something exists, that is to say, its end, is best, and self- 1253• sufficiency is both end and best.

It is evident from these considerations, then, that a city-state is among the things that exist by nature, that a human being is by nature a political animal, 15 and that anyone who is without a city-state, not by luck but by nature, is either a poor specimen or else superhuman. Like the one Homer condemns, he too is "clanless, lawless, and homeless."16

S For someone with such a nature is at the same time eager for war, like an isolated piece in a board game. 17

It is also clear why a human being is more of a political animal than a bee or any other gregarious animal. Nature makes nothing pointlessly, 18

10 as we say, and no animal has speech except a human being. A voice is a signifier of what is pleasant or painful, which is why it is also possessed by the other animals (for their nature goes this far: they not only per­ ceive what is pleasant or painful but signify it to each other). But speech is for making clear what is beneficial or harmful, and hence also what is

IS just or unjust. For it is peculiar to human beings, in comparison to the other animals, that they alone have perception of what is good or bad, just or unjust, and the rest. And it is community in these that makes a household and a city-state.19

The city-state is also PRIOR in nature to the household and to each of 20 us individually, since the whole is necessarily prior to the part. For if the

whole body is dead, there will no longer be a foot or a hand, except homonymously,20 as one might speak of a stone "hand" (for a dead hand will be like that); but everything is defined by its TASK and by its capac­ ity; so that in such condition they should not be said to be the same things but homonymous ones. Hence that the city-state is natural and

25 prior in nature to the individual is clear. For if an individual is not self­ sufficient when separated, he will be like all other parts in relation to the

1 5 . See Introduction xxvi, x1vii-x1viii, 1i-lv, lvii-lxv. 16. Iliad IX.63-64. Homer is describing a man who "loves fighting with his

own people." 17. A piece particularly vulnerable to attack by an opponent's pieces, and so

needing constantly to fight them off. 18 . The idea is that features are present in a thing's nature in order to promote

its end, not that nature is an agent (a kind of god, say) that makes things for a purpose. See Introduction xxvii-xxxv.

19 . Explained at 1280hS-12. 20. That is to say, a foot or a hand that shares no more than a name with a living,

functioning foot or hand. See Cat. 1' 1-2.

Chapter 3 5

whole. Anyone who cannot form a community with others, or who does not need to because he is self-sufficient, is no part of a city-state-he is either a beast or a god. Hence, though an impulse toward this sort of 30

community exists by nature in everyone, whoever first established one was responsible for the greatest of goods. For as a human being is the best of the animals when perfected, so when separated from LAW and JUSTICE he is worst of all. For injustice is harshest when it has weapons, and a human being grows up with weapons for VIRTUE and PRACTICAL

WISDOM to use, which are particularly open to being used for opposite purposes.21 Hence he is the most unrestrained and most savage of ani- 35

mals when he lacks virtue, as well as the worst where food and sex are concerned. But justice is a political matter; for justice is the organization of a political community, and justice22 decides what is just.

Chapter 3

Since it is evident from what parts a city-state is constituted, we must 1253h

first discuss household management, for every city-state is constituted from households. The parts of household management correspond in turn to the parts from which the household is constituted, and a com- plete household consists of slaves and FREE. But we must first examine each thing in terms of its smallest parts, and the primary and smallest 5

parts of a household are master and slave, husband and wife, father and children. So we shall have to examine these three things to see what each of them is and what features it should have. The three in question are [ 1 J mastership, [2] "marital" science (for we have no word to describe the union of woman and man), and [3] "procreative" science (this also lacks 10

a name of its own). But there is also a part which some believe to be identical to household management, and others believe to be its largest part. We shall have to study its nature too. I am speaking of what is called WEALTH ACQUISITION.23

2 1 . The weapons referred to are presumably various human capacities, such as intelligence, that can be used for good or bad purposes.

22. Reading dike with Dreizehnter and the ms. Here to be understood, perhaps, as the judicial justice administered by the courts. See 1 322'5 -8, 1326'29-30.

23. "Marital" science (gamiki) and "procreative" science (teknopoietike) are shown at work in VII . l 6. Rule over wives, which is an exercise of the former, and rule over children, of the latter, are discussed in 1. 12-13. Mastership is discussed in 1 .4-7 and wealth acquisition in 1.2, 8-l l .

6 Politics I

15 But let us first discuss master and slave, partly to see how they stand in relation to our need for necessities, but at the same time with an eye to knowledge about this topic,24 to see whether we can acquire some better ideas than those currently entertained. For, as we said at the beginning, some people believe that mastership is a sort of science, and that master­ ship, household management, statesmanship, and the science of king­ ship are all the same. But others25 believe that it is contrary to nature to

20 be a master (for it is by law that one person is a slave and another free, whereas by nature there is no difference between them), which is why it is not just either; for it involves force.

Chapter 4

Since property is part of the household, the science of PROPERTY ACQUI­

SITION is also a part of household management (for we can neither live nor live well without the necessities). Hence, just as the specialized

25 crafts must have their proper tools if they are going to perform their tasks, so too does the household manager. Some tools are inanimate, however, and some are animate. The ship captain's rudder, for example, is an inanimate tool, but his lookout is an animate one; for where crafts

30 are concerned every assistant is classed as a tool. So a piece of property is a tool for maintaining life; property in general is the sum of such tools; a slave is a piece of animate property of a sort; and all assistants are like tools for using tools. For, if each tool could perform its task on com­ mand or by anticipating instructions, and if like the statues of Daedalus

35 or the tripods of Hephaestus-which the poet describes as having "en­ tered the assembly of the gods of their own accord"26-shuttles wove cloth by themselves, and picks played the lyre, a master craftsman would not need assistants, and masters would not need slaves.

1254" What are commonly called tools are tools for production. A piece of property, on the other hand, is for ACTION. For something comes from a

24. The discussion of the theoretical aspects of wealth acquisition occupies 1.4-10 (see 12S8b9-10, which advertises this fact). I. l l is devoted to its practical aspects.

25. For example, Alcidamas (a pupil of the sophist Gorgias), who says that "na­ ture never made any man a slave."

26. Iliad XVIII.376. Daedalus was a legendary craftsman and inventor, who made the maze for the Minotaur and the thread for Ariadne. His statues were so life-like that they ran away unless they were tied down (DA 406bl8-19; Plato, Meno 97d). Hephaestus was blacksmith to the gods.