Project Gutenberg #6762
Politics: A Treatise on Government
Aristotle
350 BCEAristotle's treatise on constitutions and civic life, prepared introduction plus book-and-chapter sections from Project Gutenberg plaintext.
Project Gutenberg #6762 Public domain in the United States Cover source Local typographic cover created for MojiMori from public-domain source metadata
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AI Summary
Chapter 19 — Book II, Chapter V Central question Should property be private or common in the best state? Main argument Aristotle turns to property itself and argues for a mixed view: ownership should generally...
be happy. For happiness is not like
that numerical equality which arises from certain numbers when added
together, although neither of them may separately contain it; for
happiness cannot be thus added together, but must exist in every
individual, as some properties belong to every integral; and if the
military are not happy, who else are so? for the artisans are not, nor
the multitude of those who are employed in inferior offices. The state
which Socrates has described has all these defects, and others which are
not of less consequence.