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Politics I.2.14
“the state is by nature clearly prior to the family and to the individual”
AND ANOTHER THING. As interesting as the slavery discussion is, I'd like to think more about the claim that the city is “prior to” the individual. In what sense? Anthropologically, isn't the family clearly prior — cities being a relatively …
Mark Grannis1 reply#the-state #the-individual #nature
Politics I.8.1
“the other animals exist for the sake of man”
A note on Aristotle's hierarchy of ends: the only “end” of a thing here is to satisfy the needs of the next level up — large animals exist to furnish pelts for men, and so on. One reason for this, I think, is that there is no mention of the…
Will Grannis#nature #teleology #the-common-good
Politics I.5.4
“the lower sort are by nature slaves”
Aristotle is radically egalitarian (to steal a line from Andrew Willard Jones). At several points he treats male and female as fundamentally the same, differing only as a matter of convention — which is why he likens that relationship to po…
Maxham2 replies#slavery #nature #rule