Aristotle: Living Well

The word polis, stemming from ancient Greek city-states, is defined as a city, a city-state, citizenship, or as a body of citizens. According to Aristotle, the definition of city-state would serve as the most correct, as the word polis was often used to name them. The city as Aristotle knew it differs vastly from the current ideas we hold in regards as to what a city is. In ancient Greece, a city-state was not a part of large collaboration of city-states. Instead, the city-state would function on its own; almost as its own country with its own laws, rulers, and citizens. Membership in a polis essentially translates into citizenship of a city-state. Although, just what exactly dictated citizenship within a city-state in Aristotle's time differed from present day. Today, in order to be considered a citizen of the United States, all one would have to do would to be born unto American citizens; or, if born to those who are not citizens, be born within the boarders of the United States of America. This form of citizenship requires almost no real effort by that of the citizen, other than perhaps the occasional jury duty. As a citizen of America, the only real duties are to pay taxes and appear on the juries every so often; voting is not even required. This take on citizenship differs greatly from Aristotle's view of being a citizen to the city-state, which can be seen as a much more interactive and engaging experience for both the citizen and the state as a whole; an experience which was designed to develop the virtue of the citizens, as well as allow them to live virtuous lives. The citizens depended on one another as well as the city-state itself in order to maximize self sufficiency. It is in this statement that Aristotle's comparison of a city-state and its citizens to that of a body and a hand or foot really makes sense. As stated in Book 1, of Politics, without the body (or city-state), the hand (or citizen), would cease to exist. Without the hand, however, a body can still function, just not as well; thus, so can a city-state function without its citizen, just not very effectively.

The city-state required that its citizens had a telos, which can be defined as either a purpose or goal, as depicted in nearly every book of Politics. In the past, it was quite common for men to meet and discuss politics openly at almost any opportunity. There were marketplaces for people to venture and shop about, as well as exchange ideas and views. At large social gatherings, political discussions were high numbers and not at all out of the ordinary. In fact, one who did not discuss such endeavors was often times viewed as unintelligent or unfit for society since they were not educated in political means. Interestingly enough, Aristotle stated that laborers, or "people who work with their hands", were simply incapable of living this sort of polis lifestyle as they did not have enough time to immerse themselves in the political world of the time since they had to spend so much time hard at work. Aristotle likened these laborers to that of slaves, in the fact that they both were subjected to intense work loads as well as being excluded from membership within a polis, yet slaves were viewed as having a different purpose within the city-states. The laborers were regarded as "vulgar", and simply not fit for polis life. On the note, women were also not allowed to partake in the political events. This stems from the fact that the women were required to tend to the children, clean, cook, and maintain a household, thus a woman of that time would have absolutely no time to invest in the political activities.

Aristotle took on two views on how one could go about their life; either you were living or you were "living well", as found in the readings of the first chapters of Book 1 of Politics. According to present day terminology, living well could potentially mean being surrounded by family, vast amounts of money, many material possessions, and professional success. In the eyes of Aristotle, living well described living a life full of virtue and fulfilling one's telos, which in those days included political involvement to the city-state if you wished to be considered "human". Those who were incapable were looked down upon within the city-state. Therefore, life within the city was considered a must for anyone wishing to live out their telos and live well. This however, did not rule out the possibility for a member of a polis to live "well" in the sense that is currently accepted. In fact, many of the active members of the city-states, especially those who sat about discussing politics all day, were in fact quite wealthy. This can be compared to that of present day, in which those with immense wealth have the ability to not work, thus having more time for other activities, such as politics. Even more striking is that in present day, the wealthier classes of society tend to vote a lot of more, as well as show a larger amount of interest in political events.

Membership within a polis is directly linked with that of the ideals of living well, according to Aristotle. As stated, living well includes the fulfilling of one's telos, and in order to fulfill a "human's" telos, one would need the city-state and its membership. By migrating into a city-state and engulfing one self into the political scene of the day, a man could hope to live out his life well, respected as that of a human being. As stated by Aristotle, a citizen would die without its city-state; as would the ability to live well. Simply put, it would be impossible for a person to engage in political endeavors at the time without a city-state and its marketplace and other focal gathering points.