believed, on the contrary, that man has the
choice of good and evil. The doctrine of Socrates makes all actions
involuntary. But in Aristotle's opinion only actions performed under
forcible compulsion are involuntary. Aristotle did not, however,
consider the special difficulties in the theory of free will which in
modern times have made it one of the most thorny of all philosophical
problems. Hence his treatment of the subject is not of great value to
us.

_(b) The State_.

Politics is not a separate subject from Ethics. It is merely another
division of the same subject. And {321} this, not merely because
politics is the ethics of the State as against the individual, but
because the morality of the individual really finds its end in the
State, and is impossible without it. Aristotle agrees with Plato that
the object of the State is the virtue and happiness of the citizens,
which are impossible except in the State. For man is a political
animal by nature, as is proved by his possession of speech, which
would be useless to any save a social being. And the phrase "by
nature" means the same here as elsewhere in Aristotle. It means that
the State is the end of the individual, and that activity in the State
is part of man's essential function. The State, in fact, is the form,
the individual, the matter. The State provides both an education in
virtue and the necessary opportunities for its exercise. Without it
man would not be man at all. He would be a savage animal.

The historical origin of the State Aristotle finds in the family. At
first there is the individual. The individual gets himself a mate, and
the family arises. The family, in Aristotle's opinion, includes the
slaves: for, like Plato, he sees no wrong in the institution of
slavery. A number of families, joining together, develop into a
village community, and a number of village communities into a _polis_
(city), or State. Beyond the city, of course, the Greek idea of the
State did not extend.

Such then is the historical origin of the State. But it is of capital
importance to understand that, in Aristotle's opinion, this question
of historical origin has nothing on earth to do with the far more
important question what the State essentially is. It is no mere
mechanical aggregate of families and village communities, {322} The
_nature_ of the State is not explained in this way. For though the
family is prior to the State in order of time, the State is prior t