CHAPTERS I-II. Definition and structure of the State.

I. The state is the highest form of community and aims at the highest good. How it differs from other communities will appear if we examine the parts of which it is composed.

II. It consists of villages which consist of households. The household is founded upon the two relations of male and female, of master and slave; it exists to satisfies man’s daily needs. The village, a wider community, satisfies a wider range of needs. The state aims at satisfying all the needs of men. Men form states to secure a bare subsistence; but the ultimate object of the state is the good life. The naturalness of the state is proved by the faculty of speech in man. In the order of nature the state precedes the household and the individual. It is founded on a natural impulse, that towards political association.