Meaning of Man is a social being by nature

What does the phrase "man is a social being by nature" refer to?

"Man is a social being by nature" is a phrase of the philosopher Aristotle (384-322, a. of C.) to verify that we are born with the social characteristic and we develop it throughout our lives, since we need others to survive.

According to Aristotle one "is" insofar as one "co-is". This means that each man has an individual dimension that develops his personality or his "being", and that this dimension is integrated into the social dimension of man, for the coexistence in community since birth, resulting in coexistence.

The individual dimension of man are the qualities that man possesses, recognizes, explores, and uses to peacefully coexist in community and benefit one another. The individual dimension, where being lies, must learn to agree with the social dimension in order to coexist in society. This learning is called the socialization process.

The socialization process It is the set of learning that man needs to relate to autonomy, self-realization and self-regulation within a society. For example, the incorporation of norms of conduct, language, culture, etc. In short, we learn elements to improve communication skills and the ability to interact in community.

Aristotle says:

The human being is a social being by nature, and the insocial by nature and not by chance or is evil human or more than human (…). Society is by nature prior to the individual (…) he who cannot live in society, or does not need anything for his own sufficiency, is not a member of society, but a beast or a god.

In order to satisfy the physical and spiritual demands, man needs to live in society since rational man and individual is not self-sufficient and requires the help and protection of others of his species, forming what we call communities.

An isolated man cannot develop as a person and hence our tendency to group together instead of isolating ourselves. An example is the birth of social networks and its rapid expansion despite the fact that our advances science and technology have made other human beings less indispensable in our lifetime. That is why we continue to invent new ways of communicating and living together in society.

In his work on political philosophy Politics, Aristotle affirms, among other things, that man is a social and political being. Socialization is the nature of man. According to this philosopher, the family is the first community or society formed, which is necessary for social being.

However, the family is not enough to satisfy all the needs of the human being, so this naturally generates a society. For this, villages would be organized and then these would constitute the cops, or Greek city back then.

The organization of society requires the political nature of man, and this organization derives from law, thanks to the virtue of citizens and the practice of justice. The right or fair as such only makes sense for man in society, and this right ensures his happiness.

You can also see:

• man is a political animal.
• Aristotle ethics

Bachelor of Philosophy (2009) from the National University of Costa Rica; Master's in History, International Relations and Cooperation (2013), in Translation and Language Services (2015) and in Multimedia (2017) from the University of Porto.