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 13 — Book I, Chapter XII Central question What are the parts of domestic government? Main argument Aristotle identifies the three household relations of master, father, and husband. He treats each as a...
There are then three parts of domestic government, the masters, of
which we have already treated, the fathers, and the husbands; now the
government of the wife and children should both be that of free persons,
but not the [I259b] same; for the wife should be treated as a citizen of
a free state, the children should be under kingly power; for the male is
by nature superior to the female, except when something happens contrary
to the usual course of nature, as is the elder and perfect to the
younger and imperfect. Now in the generality of free states, the
governors and the governed alternately change place; for an equality
without any preference is what nature chooses; however, when one
governs and another is governed, she endeavours that there should be a
distinction between them in forms, expressions, and honours; according
to what Amasis said of his laver. This then should be the established
rule between the man and the woman. The government of children should
be kingly; for the power of the father over the child is founded in
affection and seniority, which is a species of kingly government; for
which reason Homer very properly calls Jupiter "the father of gods and
men," who was king of both these; for nature requires that a king should
be of the same species with those whom he governs, though superior in
some particulars, as is the case between the elder and the younger, the
father and the son.