Medieval and Modern Comments on Aristotle’s Politics: Interpretations of zoon politikon

Abstract

Aristotle held that human beings acting in the public sphere should be considered zoon politikon (ζῷον πολιτικόν). We shall offer a general framework for understanding this fundamental property of human beings, drawing in various ways on the historical development of the concept. This, in turn, has important implications for political theory, as it suggests that human beings are predisposed towards sociability: man is by nature a social animal that lives in community with others and can only achieve justice and the common good through dialogue and deliberation. As Aristotle pointed out, humans are the only zoon logon ekon (ζῷον λόγον ἔχον), which implies that humans derive their political nature from their rhetorical nature.