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Aristotle begins from the household and the village and ends with the best possible state, arguing that human beings are by nature political animals who can…
Aristotle begins from the household and the village and ends with the best possible state, arguing that human beings are by nature political animals who can only live well in a community. He collects and compares the constitutions of Greek cities, sorts governments into good forms and their corrupt twins, criticises Plato's ideal city and recommends a large middle class as the surest foundation of stability.
Context and significance
Some of it, especially his defence of slavery, is hard to read today, and some of it reads like modern political science. Curiously, the Politics was not translated into Arabic in the Middle Ages, which is why Ibn Rushd wrote his commentary on Plato's Republic instead.
About the author
Aristotle (384–322 BC), the son of a doctor from Stagira in northern Greece, studied at Plato's Academy for twenty years, tutored the young Alexander the Great and then founded his own school in Athens, the Lyceum, where he is said to have taught while walking.
He wrote on almost everything: logic, physics, biology, ethics, politics, rhetoric and poetry, and his works became the foundation of learning for two thousand years. In the Arabic tradition he was called the First Teacher, and the great commentaries of Ibn Rushd carried his thought back to medieval Europe.