「政治的動物」與「理性的動物」——亞里斯多德論人的政治性

Abstract

亞里斯多德在《政治學》中主張，「人就其本性，是政治的動物。」（ὁ ἄνθρωπος φύσει πολιτικὸν ζῷον）（Pol. I.2.1253a2）。這個主張在西方政治哲學史上影響深遠。然而，亞里斯多德究竟是在說什麼，以及他為什麼這麼說，至今仍無定論。本文旨在重構這個主張背後的完整論述，以回答前述兩個問題。亞里斯多德在其著作中七度使用πολιτικὸν（ζῷον）這類表述，不過這類表述在各個脈絡中的意涵不盡相同。本文由此切入，檢視πολιτικὸν （ζῷον）的各個意涵，以回答「何謂政治的動物？」。接著，本文轉而探討亞里斯多德的自然 / 本性（φύσις）概念，並說明人作為「理性的動物」的本性。最後，本文將闡述理性的動物和政治的動物這兩個概念的關聯：人是理性的動物，因此人既有能力組成政治共同體，也需要生活在政治共同體之中。只有在政治共同體中，人才能完全實現本性，達致「屬人的善」。

Aristotle in Politics claims that “A human being is by nature a political animal” (Pol. I.2.1253a2). This claim is highly influential in the history of western political philosophy. However, the meaning of this claim, and the reason why he has made such a claim, are still debated. The purpose of this thesis is an attempt to reconstruct the comprehensive discourse behind Aristotle’s claim in order to answer the two questions mentioned above. The thesis consists mainly of three parts. Expressions like “πολιτικὸν ζῷον” and “πολιτικόν” appear seven times in the Aristotelian corpus, but these expressions do not necessarily mean the same thing in their particular contexts. The first part of this thesis is, therefore, a survey of the passages which contain expressions like πολιτικὸν ζῷον and πολιτικόν. This survey would be conducive to answer the question: “What is a political animal?”. The second part aims to investigate the way in which Aristotle understands “nature” (φύσις) and “human nature”. The discussion of this part shows that Aristotle understands the nature of human beings as “rational animal”. Finally, the third part of this thesis makes explicit the connection between the concept of “rational animal” and that of “political animal”: Humans are rational animals. Therefore, they have both the capacity of forming political communities and the need for living together in political communities. Human beings can fully realize their nature and attain “the human good” only when they live in the polis.