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Quote of the day: Famous ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle was mentored by Plato and later went on to become the guide of none other than Alexander the Great. His observations were influential and laid the foundation for several scientific methods and findings. Let’s understand the meaning of this famous quote by Aristotle highlighting how ‘man is a social animal…’
“Man is by nature a social animal; an individual who is unsocial naturally and not accidentally is either beneath our notice or more than human. Society is something that precedes the individual. Anyone who either cannot lead the common life or is so self-sufficient as not to need to, and therefore does not partake of society, is either a beast or a god. ”
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― Aristotle, Politics
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Meaning of the quote
Aristotle’s famous lines about ‘man being a social animal’ refers to the fact that man is not meant to live in isolation. Humans are made to survive in polis (city or state) and will be unable to churn out their highest potential, morality, or self-sufficiency when in isolation or alone. It hints at the fact that humans need others around for security, survival, or companionship.
When living in a community, humans tend to flourish and reach their full potential.
Who was Aristotle?
Born in the city of Stagira in northern Greece during the Classical period – Aristotle is considered to be an ancient Greek philosopher whose writings span over a wide variety of subjects including natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, and the arts.
He was the founder of the Peripatetic school of philosophy in the Lyceum in Athens, where he followed the Aristotelian tradition setting the groundwork for the development of modern science. Aristotle’s views profoundly shaped medieval scholarship.
After Plato (his mentor) died, Aristotle left Athens and, at the request of Philip II of Macedon, tutored his son Alexander the Great beginning in 343 BC.
Aristotle contributed to almost every field of human knowledge then in existence, and was the founder of many new fields. According to the philosopher Bryan Magee, “it is doubtful whether any human being has ever known as much as he did”.
Aristotle has been regarded as the first scientist.
Scholar Taneli Kukkonen writes that “in the best 20th-century scholarship Aristotle comes alive as a thinker wrestling with the full weight of the Greek philosophical tradition.”
Some of Aristotle’s students included Aristoxenus, Dicaearchus, Demetrius of Phalerum, Eudemos of Rhodes, Harpalus, Hephaestion, Mnason of Phocis, Nicomachus, and Theophrastus.
