When Aristotle talks about community in Nicomachean Ethics, he's got several things in mind at once. (Typical Artistotle.) The basic unit of community is the family, but we also participate in communities when we step out the door (our workplaces, the municipality in which we live, etc). Humans are political creatures, says Aristotle, and that means living together, sharing goods in common, and being ruled by common virtues (encoded in the law).
It's because of this that justice only exists when we live in community with each other (i.e. because we live under a common law that defines what is lawful). The point of living in this way is to become self-sufficient and in doing so, achieving happiness. But this self-sufficiency doesn't mean living alone: it means having what we need to support ourselves, our families, and the community as a whole.
When communities aim toward what's just, everyone thrives. When each person has what he needs to live, it means that the common good has been attained. While Aristotle knows this to be the greatest societal good, he readily admits that it's difficult to do the right thing by everyone.
Questions About Community
- Why is community so important for human beings?
- Can happiness exist only on the level of the individual? Or is it always wrapped up in the idea of the political?
- Why does Aristotle discuss types of rule in the middle of a discussion about friendship? How does the state of the regime affect the state of the people in it?
- Why does Aristotle say that justice only applies to people who live in community?
Chew on This
Community can provide the context for human happiness, but it also has the potential to be coercive and exclusionary—even on its good days.
Justice exists only for people who live in community not just because they share a common code of law, but also because they have to live with each other.