Q.8. What did Aristotle mean by saying that "the state is a natural institution".
Ans. Aristotle said, "Man is a political animal, destined by nature for political life. "This implies that "The state is a creation of nature and man is by nature a political man. And he who by nature and not by mere accident is without a state, is either above humanity, or below it." The solitary man is either a beast or a god. state is a natural institution and not a conventional institution as the sophists supposed or as enunciated by the social contract theory. Surprisingly enough, contractualists like Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau, totally forgot Aristotle's natural origin of state while dealing with the controversy about its origin.
1. Origin in Gregariousness : Aristotle (raced the origin of state to the gregarious instinct of man. Man cannot live alone. That is why when one is to be given punishment he is made to live all alone. Being a social animal, it is man's nature to associate himself with his fellow men and form associations. The state is one of such associations. It is as natural to man as the family or clan. It is as natural as water to a fish. It is the medium without which human faculties can never come to their full compass. osoite to su
2. For the sake of lire: The naturalness of state is clear from Che fact that it came into being for the bare needs of life and it continues for [he sake of good life. According to Aristotle man cannot realise the destiny of his life without the state. The stale to him, is an association of unlike persons who, by nature, associate together to satisfy their common social and economic needs, desires and racial instinct by mutual exchange of goods and services.
3. Logical Development of Family: The association of male and female for the perpetuation of the race, and of master and slave for the production of subsistence, give rise to family or household, which has its social or moral use. This stands as long as men are not satisfied with a bare existence and the satisfaction of their elementary wants. Urged by their nature to seek a fuller life, households are compelled to combine together into a village for the better satisfaction of their wants and then into a city or polish or state, of such size and nature as to be self sufficing. Thus, the state stands at the top of the pyramid which springs from families and villages.
4. Perfect form of Association: According to Aristotle, self sufficiency can be attained only in the state. It is the culmination of widening circles of human association based on human wants. It.is not merely an economic association but also a moral community. His the perfect form of association. Man is naturally a political animal. He can attain the irue end for which he is made.
5. Moral self sufficiency: According to Plato and Aristotle, self sufficiency-reached in city-state, docs not mean economic self sufficiency. It cannot be achieved even by a big state of the present day. The state provided all the conditions and the environment necessary for the moral development of the individual. To quote Foster, "The lower forms of society, the village, for example, prove inadequate not only because they do not supply the needs of man's animal nature, but also because they do not adequately supply the needs of his rational nature. These latter can be supplied only in a political, as distinct, for example, from a purely economic society. "
6. Natural destination: Thus, man is a political animal because his natural destination is the state. Man would be a brute without social life. Most animals are gregarious, but man alone is political. What makes him political or rational being, distinguished from the lower form of animal life, is his faculty of speech and organised association with his fellows. It enables him to distinguish between good and bad, between the jusl and the unjust and associate himself with his fellows in the persuit of good life. This human faculty of speech also suggests the naturalness of the state. 7. Association of Associations: To Aristotle, the state is not an association of isolated individuals, but an association of individuals already united as members of smaller groups. It is an association of associations. Unlike Plato, Aristotle preserved the family and village in the state. He described the state as a union of families and villages for a happy and self sufficing life. State is the supreme association as it is the highest of all and embraces all the other associations, slate is the highest form of associalion, because it aims at the highest good which is the good life of the citizens.
8. Community of Good Life: An association, therefore the state implies not mere being together but living together for something higher than mere existence. It is not an insurance against mere insecurity of life and property. It is a community of good life. It is biologically a superior association embracing all other lower forms of associations. It is the whole, of which associations and individuals are parts. The whole is prior to the parts. It is the whole which lends significance to the parts. While in the order of time the state is preceded by the family or household and village, in the order of thought, it is prior to both. It thus precedes the individual. Only in the state can the human being rise above the brute and become a man. When isolated man is not self sufficient, independent or perfect It is in the state alone that man finds the perfection of life
9. Abiding place in scheme of things: The state is natural, not because it is independent of human volition but because it has its abiding place in the scheme of things. All the other associations attain their full perfection only in the state. They are incapable of separate and self contained existence. To quote Aristotle, "Men live a social and political life, not by choice but because their inherent natures, their needs and desires and weakness and strength make them to do so. Unequal and non-uniform natural endowments, intellectual, moral and physical, compel associated, and therefore, a social and political life. Societies and state were necessary for the well being of men and were therefore, as much a product of Nature as man himself." 10. Organic theory of State: The state is an organism, according to Aristotle. Like an organism it is composed of diverse parts interdependent on each other. They share in full the life of the organism and live because of their relation to the whole. Aristotle drew a close analogy between human organism and the state. It is not possible to understand the rights and duties of mart apart from his relation to the state.
11. Aims at HighestGood: Every association aims at the same good. The state, the highest of all associations, however, aims at the highest good. The functions of the state are implied in Aristotle's definition of the state as "the union of families and villages in a perfect and self sufGdnglife, by which we mean a happy and honourable lite." They can also be deducted from Aristotle's oft quoted statement that "the state came into beingfov the sake of life, but continued for the sake of good life. "Aristotle did not limit the scope of state activity to mere exchange of services. The state is there to ensure a complete and virtuous life.