Aristotle's Politics: The Art of Living Together › The Argument: From Household to State

Aristotle builds his political theory from the ground up, starting with the most basic human associations and showing how they combine into larger wholes. The first association is the household (the _oikos_), comprising husband and wife, parent and child, master and slave. Each relationship serves a distinct purpose and involves a different kind of authority. The husband-wife relationship is for procreation and mutual support. The parent-child relationship is for raising the next generation. The master-slave relationship, deeply problematic to modern readers, Aristotle defends as natural when the slave lacks the capacity for full rational deliberation. We will examine this claim critically below. Multiple households combine to form a village, typically for daily needs beyond what a single household can provide. Multiple villages combine to form the _polis_, which is self-sufficient and exists for living well, beyond survival. > The state comes into existence for the sake of life, but it exists for the sake of the good life. This progression matters. Each level of association exists for a purpose, and the _polis_ represents the completion of the series. It is the association within which all human capacities can be fully exercised. The household can provide for material needs, but it cannot provide for the full range of human goods: political participation, civic friendship, the exercise of justice on a broad scale, the contemplation of what is noble and just.