Theory of state writen by aristotle.

Theory of state
Aristotle believes that man is, by nature and necessity, a social animal and he who is unable to live
in society must be either a god or beast. He finds the origin of the state in the innate desire of an
individual to satisfy his economic needs and racial instincts. For the realisation of this desire the
male and female on the one hand and the master and slave on the other, come together, live
together and form a family, i.e., a household which has its moral and social use. It is in the household that the three elements originate and develop which are essential to the building of a
state, namely fellowship, political organisation and justice.

Aristotle opens the politics with two important ideas: the state is a community and that it is the
highest of all communities, ‘which embraces all the rest, aims at good in greater degree than any
other, and at the highest good’ the first thesis came naturally to a Greek of the classical period: his
polis was city state with a small area and population. Aristotle may not have been the first to
consider the state a community, but he was the first to define it clearly as such, and thus he laid the
foundation for the organic conception of the state, one of the two major types into which all political
theories of the state may roughly be divided.

According to Aristotle, sate is a natural community, an organism with all the attributes of a living
being. Aristotle conceives of the state as natural in two ways. First, he briefly delineates the
evolution of social institutions from the family through the village to the city state; in the historical
sense, the state is the natural and final stage in the growth of human relations. However, the state
is also considered by Aristotle to be actual in a logical and philosophical sense: “The state is by
nature clearly prior to the family and the individual, since the whole is of necessity prior to the part”.
Aristotle maintains that the state is not only a community but it is the highest community aiming at
the highest good. The family is the first form of association, lowest in the chain of social evolution
and lowest on the rung of values, because it is established by nature for the supply of men’s every
day wants. The village is the second form of association, genetically more complex than the family,
and aiming at something more than, the supply of daily needs. The third and highest in terms of
value and purpose: whereas family and village exist essentially for the preservation of life and
comforts of companionship, the state exists for the sake of a good life, and not for the sake of life
only, and political society exists for the sake of noble actions, and not of mere companionship It is
clear from the above observations that the state is the highest form of association, not only in terms
of the social and institutional value, but interns of man’s own nature. Aristotle believed that man was essentially good and the function of the state was to develop his
good faculties into a habit of good action. Aristotle saw a good deal of identity between the
individual and the state. Like the individual, the state must show the virtues of courage, self-control
and justice. The function of the state was the promotion of good life among its citizens and,
therefore, the state was the spiritual association into a moral life As Prof. William Ebenstein has
rightly pointed out his (Aristotle’s ) “is a conception of moral sovereignty rather than of legal
sovereignty.