Study On Aristotle’s Family View

In Aristotle’s eyes, family is the basic unit of the city, and a place where virtue is developed. Therefore, a study of Aristotle’s thoughts on the content, nature and function of family may help understand his works on ethics and politics, as well as the relationship between them. By investigating the governance relationships and the nature of the family, we may further identify the connection between city and family, and the reason why family is important for city.According to Aristotle’s philosophy of family, there are three types of governance relationships: master versus slave, husband versus wife, and father versus son, each with its own nature and best governance form. Due to these relationships, family is featured with naturality and political attribute. It is not only an essential for human being’s self-protection, but a way for people to pursue their happy life.Although family is reasonably and necessarily existed in the city, Aristotle points out that the two things are different in nature and governance form. Even the same virtue may convey different meanings in the city and the family. For females who can only do things restricted to the family, their virtue is also different with that of males. However, coherence is another feature of the relationship between family and city. According to Aristotle, both of the family and the city are built for happy life and justice is their common governance principle.Aristotle’s philosophy of family may bring benefit for contemporary people’s life, because the form of family can bring something valuable for them. Nevertheless, his views of family have some limitations due to historical backgrounds. For example, children will be suppressed by their father to a great degree, furthermore, Aristotle has a conservative view of women that he does not agree them participate in political and public life. It makes the family become the limitation to restrict women’s activities. This essay takes a dialectic view, proving his reasonable opinions while criticizing the negative ones.