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]