Aristotle Says That the State Is Natural. What Does He Mean?
Essay title: Aristotle Says That the State Is Natural. What Does He Mean?
“Human beings have an impulse to live with others rather than in isolation” .
Aristotle argued that the development of the polis was natural and similar to the development and growth of biological organisms.
Sophists on the other hand, considered that men were simply in pursuit of their own pleasure even if it conflicted with other mens drive to the same goal. Thus, as the state limited mans actions it was argued that it was not natural.
The first step in the natural development of communities was the household. Its main purpose was to satisfy the most basic requirements for existence and consisted of two parts: the free (the male and the female) and the slave (or alternatively the ox in poorer families). The household came together driven by two major biological differences. Firstly, the difference in sex between male and female that allowed them to reproduce and continue their following and secondly, the difference between the role of the ruler and the ruled as in the case of the master-slave.