When Aristotle was right

Man is a political animal. Intuitively, this is right. Of course, it needs to be explained a bit further and Aristotle is not helpful on that score.

Prof. Steven Smith convincingly interprets Aristotle to mean that men are not necessarily naturally - that is, biologically - political. Rather, we are in fact political because we can only actualize ourselves in a political environment. Speech is the key. We can develop relationships between one another only because of speech, the ability to share a common language and therefore understanding. And, for some unexplained reason, we want to develop those relationships that we have the capacity for, and therefore we act in public. This is similar to Arendt's notion that we cannot be human without action in the public space of appearances.

But why do we seek out these relationships simply because we have the capacity to? And why are these necessarily positive relationships that we seek out? Why can't we evilly exploit our ability to communicate with others in order to use them for our means rather than working for mutual or common goals? There seems to be a built-in assumption that we naturally do anything that we have the capacity to do, or that these relationships are in fact better or more useful than other options and therefore, more plausibly, everyone will pursue them. That said, this is overwhelmingly true in practice.

As Smith suggests, why doesn't this belie Aristotle's other notion of inequality? If language and reason are natural to the human species, and not to particular members of it, and these are the foundations of politics, why do we not all have an equal role to play in politics? Perhaps Aristotle would say that the capacity to reason is not what makes us all equally proficient at politics, but only what sets the stage for all people to be governed by politics. If Aristotle's argument is, as I remember it, that rulers are fit for ruling and the ruled are happy to be ruled because they cannot govern themselves, then it does in fact make sense for all people to pursue political relationships, regardless of what the outcome will be for themselves.

Essentially, it is a fact that man is a political animal - simply because we are all involved in politics right now. But the explanation for why we do such and how we go about it is far more complicated.