He then examines in what way the city may be said to be natural.Īristotle discusses the parts of the household (οἶκος : oikos), which includes slaves, leading to a discussion of whether slavery can ever be just and better for the person enslaved or is always unjust and bad. He takes issue with the view that political rule, kingly rule, rule over slaves and rule over a household or village are only different in size. 1–2), and then specifically discusses the household (οἶκος : oikos) (I. He begins with the relationship between the city and man (I. Aristotle comes to this conclusion because he believes the public life is far more virtuous than the private and because men are 'political animals'. The highest form of community is the polis.

In the first book, Aristotle discusses the city (πόλις : polis) or 'political community' (κοινωνία πολιτική : koinōnía politikē) as opposed to other types of communities and partnerships such as the household (οἶκος : oikos) and village. Politics spans the Bekker sections 1252a to 1342b. Citations of this work, as with the rest of the works of Aristotle, are often made by referring to the Bekker section numbers. The title of Politics literally means 'the things concerning the πόλις : polis', and is the origin of the modern English word politics.Īristotle's Politics is divided into eight books, which are each further divided into chapters. The end of the Nicomachean Ethics declared that the inquiry into ethics necessarily follows into politics, and the two works are frequently considered to be parts of a larger treatise-or perhaps connected lectures-dealing with the 'philosophy of human affairs'. Politics ( Greek: Πολιτικά, Politiká) is a work of political philosophy by Aristotle, a 4th-century BC Greek philosopher. Aristotle's comparative politics and theory, grounded in virtue ethics and natural philosophy

Politics by aristotle