Seems strange that slaves were vital but not good for the city. Is Ari referring to 'good' as a judgement of character or as something beneficial?
So what's wrong w having sex with people other than the spouse inside the procreation window as long as you abort whatever is produced?
I have not found an argument that slaves are vital to the city in Aristotle. I think he thinks they are vital to Athens, but Aristotle is critiquing Athens in The Politics, as well as every other pooolis in Hellas.
Aristotle believes that what is unqualifiedly good is virtue and happiness, and that these two are inseparable. The virtuous man is happy; and the happy man must be virtuous. Then, there is a qualified sense of good, insofar as these things serve the virtuous and the happy.
A city is good if it promotes the virtue of the citizens.
For the wife, because one would not be able to tell whose child it is. For the husband, because it is unequal with regard to the wife and, thus, Aristotle believes the wife will recognize that the situation is unequal and will be moved by her passion (Aristotle believes women are inherently more passionate and less reasonable than men) to have an affair, thus leading to the problem of being able to tell who the offspring belong to.
I assumed slaves were vital because i thought they did most of the labor for work such as agriculture and infrastructure.
They did most all of the household work in Athens. Farmers were not slaves in Athens, and they toiled all the time. Athens was a very cosmopolitan city for the time, and most of the construction was done by non-slave foreigners, artists, craftsmen, etc. Aristotle often refers to these individuals as vulgar, but they were not slaves; though, there was plenty of slavery in Athens.
Was Ari considered elitist back then?
Aristotle is definitely an elitist (think, Aristocrat); however, Aristotle was not a citizen of Athens, and had no civic rights. However, Aristotle is an elitist in a specific sense: virtue. He truly thought virtue was the highest good and that he was the most virtuous (to the extent of believing that he was more god than man).
I learned something new. Thanks for that. Do you think people who gravitate towards philosophy gravitate towards elitism?
This would make sense if you were looking to create some sort of utopia, or if you were looking to create something like Sparta, a dominating class of people.
Not sure how applicable it is in today's world.
I'd at least like to be able to enjoy the person I'm going to be with for awhile.
Aristotle was indeed trying to create the "best city that anyone could pray for". Further, he thought that best city was necessary to the best human life; thus, it was imperative for all to work to build the best city (of course, he thought of himself as more of a god than human, so he could get the best life, regardless).
I figured that was the case. In my political science class, we talked about Plato's utopia, but not Aristotle's. I was a little surprised, despite the similarities. Plato didn't have this type of child rearing.
I'm a sucker for love (as J. Cole would say) so I really don't get why people would do this now, although it does seem like a more efficient, cleaner way to do things.