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Aristotle


            Aristotle's teleological view holds that "whatever is the end-product of the coming into existence of any object, that is what we call its nature" and the ultimate end-product is eudaimonia or a virtuous life. Man is both a social and political animal in that we are inclined to live in society as well as attempt to perceive what is just and unjust and, act accordingly as "men do in fact aim at what they think good." The base level activity that, perhaps best shows man to be a political animal is moral consideration; "humans alone have perception of good and evil, just and unjust" . Being such a political animal, man succumbs to a natural urge and pairs off with a woman, similarly, a master pairs with a slave to better enable life and then, in succession, a household, a village and a state is formed; the end-product here is, supposedly a virtuous polis in a collective and individual sense. This process demonstrates the activities and institutions that exemplify man as a political animal and the "most sovereign among them all" that "embraces all others" is, in fact the state. .
             The polis takes the individual further than self-sufficiency alone, it is man's need to express what is just and moral within a formidably-sized group that pushes the process of "association forming" to its state-based natural end. Citizenship, is perhaps the most noble activity that exemplifies man as a political animal or, in other words, "political activity" within a self-sufficient, developed state. Politics functions so as to allow individual members of the community (as opposed to simply citizens) to achieve a life of justice that is a life directed toward the "good" and to undergo a personal development that strives for moral fulfillment. So, all interaction both informal and formal between human-kind and especially the process that culminates in a state being formed are activities that demonstrate man is, by nature a political animal.


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