Liber III, Pars I — Quot, et quae bona homines consequuntur de constitutione communitatis politicae, quae civitas nuncupatur. Cap. II.

Liber III, Pars I — Quot, et quae bona homines consequuntur de constitutione communitatis politicae, quae civitas nuncupatur. Cap. II.

It's not enough to say that a city exists for the sake of some good, as was argued in the previous chapter; unless it's shown what those goods are and how many there are that people gain from the establishment of a city. However, there are three kinds of goods that a city is arranged to provide, as far as the present situation is concerned: it is organized for living, for living sufficiently, and for living virtuously. To live, as the Philosopher says, is to exist for living beings. Therefore, just as it is one thing to exist, another to live sufficiently, and yet another to live virtuously. For existence is very broad, as it is said in the Book of Causes: it is indeed the first of all created things, and all things participate in existence in some way. Yet not all things participate in sufficient existence, but only those that are said to have sufficient existence according to their nature, which have complete existence according to their species. If any being lacks some perfection appropriate to its species, although it may have some existence, like an imperfect existence, it is still not said to have sufficient existence. Thus, it is broader to exist than to exist sufficiently. Thus, it is broader to exist sufficiently than to exist virtuously. For virtue, which is an elective and moral habit, can only be participated in by rational beings who possess understanding. Therefore, irrational beings and even inanimate objects can have sufficient existence according to their nature, but they cannot have virtuous existence because they cannot participate in virtue. In this way, we can distinguish between existing, existing sufficiently, and existing virtuously; we can distinguish living, living sufficiently, and living virtuously. However, no matter how a person has existence, they live; yet they are not said to live sufficiently or to have a sufficient life unless they possess what is necessary to meet their bodily needs; thus, living and living sufficiently are different. Thus, it is also different to live sufficiently and to live virtuously. For many have sufficient means for life, but because of their corrupt desires, they neglect to live virtuously. Therefore, the establishment of the city is the cause of many and great goods, because through it, people attain all three aforementioned goods. For people derive their very existence from the political community; because without it, human life cannot exist. We are speaking here about human life as it is. Therefore, it is shown that living politically according to certain laws and commendable ordinances, while refusing to live this way, does not mean one wishes to live as a human being; rather, as has been made clear above and will be made clear below, such a person is either worse than a human or better: for man is naturally a political and social animal, as will be shown below. Thus, living (speaking of living as a human) is derived by people from political communication or from the establishment of the state. Secondly, from such an establishment, people not only achieve living but also living sufficiently. For in a single house or in a single village, not everything necessary for life can be found; therefore, the city was established having many villages, in one of which the craft of a tradesman is practiced, in another textile work, and in another something else, according to what we need to supply the necessities of life: for a city is never perfect unless its inhabitants can find there everything sufficient for life. Therefore, we derive from the city not only the ability to live as a human but also to live sufficiently: because if it is perfect, it contains all that is necessary for life. It is rightly said, as is written in the first of the Politics, that a community, which is a city composed of many villages, is a perfect community: because indeed (it is appropriate to say) such a community has the means of all that is necessary for life. Third, from the establishment of a city, we achieve the ability to live virtuously. For the purpose of a legislator establishing a city should not only be that citizens have what they need to live, but also that they live well according to the laws and virtuously. Therefore, it is said in the first book of the Politics that a city exists for the sake of living: and that the grace of living well was perhaps the primary motivation for those who established the city, which was to live and to have what is sufficient for life. Seeing that they could not provide sufficiently for themselves in solitude, they established a city so that one could supply the needs of another and have what is sufficient for life. With the city now established, and people more clearly seeing and understanding that it is not enough to merely have what is sufficient for life unless they live well and virtuously, since a city established without law and justice could not stand, they organized a political community, which was created for living and for having what is sufficient for life; and for living well, so that they might live according to the law and virtuously. If, therefore, we achieve so many goods from the establishment of a city, it is rightly said in the first book of the Politics that the one who first instituted the city was the cause of the greatest goods.