Key Arguments

• Historical mistranslation noted from Seneca through Aquinas: "this unconscious substitution of the social for the political betrays the extent to which the original Greek understanding of politics had been lost"
• Term “social” is Roman and absent in Greek thought: "the word “social” is Roman in origin and has no equivalent in Greek language or thought"
• Even Latin “social” originally had a limited, instrumental-political sense (alliances for specific purposes): "it indicated an alliance between people for a specific purpose, as when men organize in order to rule others or to commit a crime."
• Only later with the idea of a universal human society did “social” gain a generalized, anthropological meaning: "It is only with the later concept of a , a “society of man-kind,” that the term “social” begins to acquire the general meaning of a fundamental human condition."

Source Quotes

Action alone is the exclusive prerogative of man; neither a beast nor a god is capable of it, and only action is entirely dependent upon the constant presence of others. This special relationship between action and being together seems fully to justify the early translation of Aristotle’s by , already found in Seneca, which then became the standard translation through Thomas Aquinas: (“man is by nature political, that is, social”). More than any elaborate theory, this unconscious substitution of the social for the political betrays the extent to which the original Greek understanding of politics had been lost.

This special relationship between action and being together seems fully to justify the early translation of Aristotle’s by , already found in Seneca, which then became the standard translation through Thomas Aquinas: (“man is by nature political, that is, social”). More than any elaborate theory, this unconscious substitution of the social for the political betrays the extent to which the original Greek understanding of politics had been lost. For this, it is significant but not decisive that the word “social” is Roman in origin and has no equivalent in Greek language or thought.

More than any elaborate theory, this unconscious substitution of the social for the political betrays the extent to which the original Greek understanding of politics had been lost. For this, it is significant but not decisive that the word “social” is Roman in origin and has no equivalent in Greek language or thought. Yet the Latin usage of the word also originally had a clear, though limited, political meaning; it indicated an alliance between people for a specific purpose, as when men organize in order to rule others or to commit a crime.

For this, it is significant but not decisive that the word “social” is Roman in origin and has no equivalent in Greek language or thought. Yet the Latin usage of the word also originally had a clear, though limited, political meaning; it indicated an alliance between people for a specific purpose, as when men organize in order to rule others or to commit a crime. It is only with the later concept of a , a “society of man-kind,” that the term “social” begins to acquire the general meaning of a fundamental human condition.

Yet the Latin usage of the word also originally had a clear, though limited, political meaning; it indicated an alliance between people for a specific purpose, as when men organize in order to rule others or to commit a crime. It is only with the later concept of a , a “society of man-kind,” that the term “social” begins to acquire the general meaning of a fundamental human condition. It is not that Plato or Aristotle was ignorant of, or unconcerned with, the fact that man cannot live outside the company of men, but they did not count this condition among the specifically human characteristics; on the contrary, it was something human life had in common with animal life, and for this reason alone it could not be fundamentally human.

Key Concepts

• This special relationship between action and being together seems fully to justify the early translation of Aristotle’s by , already found in Seneca, which then became the standard translation through Thomas Aquinas:
• More than any elaborate theory, this unconscious substitution of the social for the political betrays the extent to which the original Greek understanding of politics had been lost.
• the word “social” is Roman in origin and has no equivalent in Greek language or thought.
• it indicated an alliance between people for a specific purpose, as when men organize in order to rule others or to commit a crime.
• a “society of man-kind,” that the term “social” begins to acquire the general meaning of a fundamental human condition.

Context

4 MAN: A SOCIAL OR A POLITICAL ANIMAL — critique of the traditional translation and conceptual shift from political to social.