Polis 27 (2):292-307 (
2010)
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Abstract
Departing from Aristotle's two-fold definition of anthrōpos (human) as
having logos and being political, the argument of this article is that human beings are
always fundamentally political for Aristotle. This position challenges the view that
ethical life is prior to or beyond the scope of political life. Aristotle's conception of the
political nature of the human is developed through a reading of the linguistic argument
at Politics 1.2; a careful treatment of autos, or self, in Aristotle; and an examination of
the political nature of anthrōpos in the context of Aristotle's candidates for the best
life in Politics VII.l-3 and Nicomachean Ethics X.6-8. From this consideration the
compatibility between Aristotle's claims that anthrōpos is fundamentally political and
that the highest end of the human is achieved in theoria is maintained, since even in
pursuing the theoretic life, human beings take up the practical question of what the
best life is.