Single Idea 5133

[catalogued under 24. Political Theory / A. Basis of a State / 1. A People / b. The natural life]

Full Idea

Man is by nature a social being.

Gist of Idea

Man is by nature a social being

Source

Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics [c.334 BCE], 1097b10)

Book Reference

Aristotle: 'Ethics (Nicomachean)', ed/tr. ThomsonJ A K/TredennickH [Penguin 1976], p.74


A Reaction

A famous idea traditionally translated (e.g. by Irwin) as "man is a political animal", but Thomson's translation seems better. Aristotle presumably means that man lives in a 'polis'. This is the natural function that gives the moral virtues.Cf Idea 5265.

Related Ideas

Idea 5265 Even more than a social being, man is a pairing and family being [Aristotle]

Idea 21435 Man is both social, and unsociable [Kant]