Book I

Aristotle establishes that every city is a society founded on pursuit of some good, with the political society being the highest form that comprehends all others.

Aristotle argues against those who mistake regal, family, and herile government for the same thing, distinguishing them by both number and constitution rather than scale alone.

Aristotle proposes that understanding the city requires separating it into constituent parts down to their first elements, as in any other inquiry.

Natural impulse compels male and female to join for reproduction, not by choice but by instinct present in plants and animals alike.

Those with intellectual capacity naturally command while those with merely physical excellence are meant to obey, creating the master-slave distinction as natural and mutually beneficial.

Nature assigns different functions to females and slaves, unlike barbarous societies where the two roles collapse due to lack of natural rulers.

The household is the first society established by nature for daily sustenance, composed of master, wife, and children, preceding larger groupings.

Multiple families joining together for lasting mutual advantage create a village, typically composed of descendants of one family.

When villages combine to form a complete society, that is the city, which exists first for mere living but continues for the sake of living well.

Since the foundational male-female pairing is natural, and cities emerge from it by necessity, cities themselves are natural productions and complete in themselves.

Whoever is unfit for society must be less or more than human; humans naturally seek community, and those without it are quarrelsome like solitary birds.

Speech uniquely distinguishes humans, enabling expression of justice and injustice, which forms the basis of families and cities.

The city must precede individuals and families logically, since incomplete individuals are merely parts of the whole city.

The founder of civil society provided the greatest good by enabling humans to achieve excellence through law and justice, without which humans would be most wicked.

A complete family consists of freemen and slaves, with three distinct relationships: master-slave, husband-wife, and father-child.

Some claim mastery derives from superior knowledge like that of rulers, while others argue slavery is contrary to nature and derives from law or force alone.

Since living well requires sustenance, acquisition of necessary means is part of family management, making instruments and property essential.

Some instruments are lifeless (like a ship's tiller), others animate (like servants); slaves are animated instruments more valuable than inanimate tools.

A slave is an instrument for use in life itself rather than for making something else, making service a slave's essential function.

A natural slave is one who belongs wholly to another and possesses only enough reason to understand but not exercise command, like a chattel.

Aristotle postpones the question of whether any person is naturally slave or whether slavery is just, noting it seems determined by first principles and facts.

That some govern while others obey is necessary and useful from birth; better-governed subjects produce better results, as with human mastery over animals.

In well-formed individuals, the soul governs the body as master governs slave, and mind governs appetite, showing this relation is natural and advantageous.

Tamed animals are naturally better than wild ones, and subjection to man is beneficial; this same natural hierarchy holds between males and females.

Those inferior in soul as body is to soul are naturally slaves; they possess minimal reason to understand commands without capacity to command themselves.

Nature intends slaves to have robust bodies for labor and the free to have erect bodies for civil and military life, though these distinctions don't always hold.

When superior bodies and souls exist as much as statues exceed human form, the inferior rightly become slaves to the superior.

Some argue credibly that slavery arises from war and legal compulsion rather than nature, raising doubts about its justice when the enslaved are actually superior.

Superior force often succeeds due to superior ability; dispute remains whether justice favors the powerful ruling, with wise thinkers divided.

Some hold justice to be benevolence, others that power rightfully rules, leaving unclear whether the strongest should be masters.

Some argue legal slavery is just, yet noble persons wrongly enslaved in war should not be called slaves but barbarians only.

Noble persons are esteemed universally, while barbarians only at home, suggesting slavery and nobility are distinguished by virtue and vice, not legal status alone.

Those who emphasize noble descent suggest that the good produce good offspring and the base produce base, implying virtue rather than law determines status.

Some persons are not naturally slaves and some not free by nature; in clear cases, natural slavery is both advantageous and just when properly ordered.

When naturally ordered, master and slave share mutual friendship and utility; legal slavery lacks this, making it disadvantageous to both.

Herile government suits slaves and is monarchical within households, while political government suits free equals and involves rotation of magistracy.

A master is called master for being in that relation, not for knowledge of slave management, just as slave and free have their names from condition.

Slave knowledge consists of practical household skills taught for specific tasks; master knowledge is employing slaves properly, not a great or respectable art.

Acquiring necessities for family survival differs from both master and slave knowledge, involving war or hunting as natural means.

Property is examined as a form of possession distinct from the art of acquiring wealth; the former provides means, the latter uses them.

Money-getting supplies the means for economy; one is instrumental (like shuttle-making to weaving), the other is the art of using those means.

Whether agriculture is part of money-getting or separate depends on whether it provides means for subsistence or aims at profit.

Since animals cannot live without food, dietary differences explain the variety of animal lives and survival methods across species.

Different animals obtain sustenance naturally according to their nature: herds vs. solitary, flesh vs. fruit, creating distinct ways of life.

Humans provision themselves through shepherding, robbery, hunting, farming, fishing, or fowling, with each occupation having distinct labor demands.

When single occupations cannot provide full subsistence, people combine roles like shepherding with robbery or farming with hunting.

Nature furnishes all animals with nourishment from birth until they can forage independently, through internal provision or external sources.

Since nature makes nothing imperfect or in vain, plants exist for animals and animals for human sustenance, provision, and utility.

Hunting wild beasts is a natural form of acquisition, and war against those refusing natural slavery is justified.

Only natural acquisition—providing necessary subsistence—is part of household economy and has boundaries; true riches consist in these necessities.

Though some claim riches are unbounded, they can and should be limited like instruments in any art, which are finite in number and size.

A second form of money-getting exists, called pecuniary, which seems unrelated to natural acquisition and has no bounds.

Every item has a proper use and an exchangeable use; a shoe can be worn or traded, establishing the natural basis for barter.

Barter arose naturally when some had surplus while others lacked necessities, allowing exchange without money in early family groups.

When trade partners lived far apart and goods were bulky, money was invented as a standardized medium having intrinsic value.

Money originally passed by weight or size, then gained a stamp to indicate value, removing the need to weigh each transaction.

Once money became established, buying and selling for profit developed from simple to more skillful forms.

The art of money-getting focuses on trade and finding where greatest profits can be made, procuring abundance of wealth.

Many consider wealth to be money itself, but money is only the medium of trade with no intrinsic use value for necessities.

Abundance of money does not guarantee wellbeing, as the Midas fable shows; real wealth consists in other property needed for life.

True riches and property are natural things suited to household management; trade only procures money through exchange.

In commerce, money is both the starting point and the goal, with unlimited bounds, unlike natural wealth.

Like medicine aiming at health or sculpture at form, money-getting pursues unlimited wealth, but the means available constrain practice.

Household economy has natural limits since its purpose is provision; money-getting lacks bounds because profit is its only aim.

Some mistake money-getting for economy's goal, hoarding wealth without end, confusing the two because they share acquisition as a common object.

Those focused on living seek unlimited means; those pursuing living well may conflate it with sensual pleasure, requiring endless money.

Natural virtues like courage and skill are perverted when applied to wealth-accumulation instead of their proper ends like victory or health.

Natural economy limits acquisition to necessities; the unlimited money-getting art, while sometimes necessary, properly belongs to something other than household management.

Though a statesman receives ready-made citizens as a craftsman receives materials, managing provision is not their primary business but politically necessary.

As a weaver needs good yarn but doesn't make it, a household head needs provisions but needn't personally acquire them.

As both household heads and statesmen partially oversee health but rely on physicians, so they partially oversee money-getting but rely on servants.

Nature's function is to provision her offspring with food; thus natural riches come from plants and animals.

Money-making serves either the household (necessary and commendable) or retail trade (unjustly censured for gaining from each other).

Usury increases fortune from money itself rather than through exchange; named tokos (breeding), it violates nature by making money breed money.

Useful practical skills include knowing profitable livestock and their markets, agriculture and orchards, beekeeping, fishing, and fowling.

Money-getting by exchange occurs through sea/land merchandise (profitable but risky), usury (intermediate), or wage labor (low).

Some wealth comes from goods produced by earth that bear no fruit but are useful, like timber and metals from mining.

The best arts involve least chance; the worst degrade the body or require mere strength with no skill, distinguishing them by excellence.

Books exist on husbandry and other practical arts by authors like Chares and Apollodorus for those needing specialized knowledge.

Thales the Milesian, using astrological skill, monopolized olive presses and profited greatly, showing philosophers could be rich but don't care to be.

Creating monopolies is profitable; cities sometimes monopolize goods for revenue, though Dionysius opposed it as inconsistent with proper governance.

Household government comprises three distinct relations whose respective virtues and proper conduct need examination.

Wives should be treated as free citizens while children under kingly rule; males naturally superior to females except in rare cases.

Natural equality in free states produces rotation of office; when one governs another, natural distinction appears in honors and forms.

The husband-wife relation should follow this model of distinction with honor, not pure equality.

The father's power over children, founded in affection and seniority, is a form of kingly government, as Homer depicts Jupiter.

Good household management prioritizes the virtues of family members, especially the free, over accumulation of possessions.

It is uncertain whether slaves have virtues like temperance and justice beyond bodily service, and if so, how they differ from freemen.

Similarly, whether women and children possess proper virtues raises the question whether governed and governors have the same or different virtues.

If the fair and good require both ruler and ruled to possess virtue, yet one governs while the other obeys, this seems contradictory.

Governing and being governed differ in species, not merely in degree, so cannot explain why one has virtue absolutely and the other doesn't.

A governor lacking temperance and justice cannot govern well; the governed, being intemperate and cowardly, cannot be well-governed.

Ruler and ruled both need virtue, but it differs between them as it does between ruling and obedient natures in the soul.

Different beings are governed differently: freemen differently from slaves, females from males, children from adults, each with differing mind-parts.

Slaves lack power of determination, women have weak power, children imperfect power, requiring scaled moral virtues suited to each station.

The governor must be perfect in moral virtue since his work is entirely architectonic; others need only the portion suited to their role.

Though moral virtue is common to all, its expression differs: male courage means commanding, female courage means obeying; same with justice.

Sophocles notes silence ornaments a woman but not a man, illustrating how virtues apply to characters; general definitions of virtue deceive.

Those who list virtues separately like Georgias better serve understanding than those using general definitions of virtue.

Sophocles exemplifies how virtue must fit character; silence suits women but not men in their respective roles.

Since a child is incomplete, his virtue refers not to his present state but to his completion, with education as means.

A slave's virtue is defined relative to his master's purposes; few virtues are needed, mainly avoiding idleness or fear in work.

It might be asked whether artificers, who sometimes neglect work through idleness, require virtue despite being free.

Artificers differ from slaves in temporary engagement, but approach slavery the more they act like slaves, requiring slave-like virtues accordingly.

Slaves are by nature what they are; shoemakers and other artists are not, making the comparison inapt in some ways.

The master should train slaves in virtues suited to their station through instruction, which differs from teaching particular arts.

Those who deny slaves use of reason are wrong; slaves need more instruction than children to properly execute their function.

Since each family is part of the city and each person part of family, family virtue must correspond to civic virtue.

The virtue of wives and children matters for the city since they form half of free persons and the next generation of citizens.

Aristotle concludes discussion of family government and announces he will next address the best forms of government.