Reading Aristotle's Politics, (at least the first three books) I was struck by how they addressed communism as it was understood then and also the development of mankind. In Aristotle's version of events, the household is the natural evolution of man which then in turn becomes villages and then cities based on the concept of self-sufficiency. This self efficiency is based on how different households will have various amounts of goods to satisfy their needs and thus trade between households is necessary. Although it should be noted that he associates this with the most common of the acquirers; the farmers rather than fishermen, hunters and especially nomads.
Aristotle also addresses the idea of shared property which he disagrees with vehemently due to a belief that what has shared between many will be cared for the least. In his mind, owning things privately causes the owner to show greater care and a sense of self-pride (although too much will result in selfishness). Thus Aristotle believes that the best way to share property would be for private ownership but public usage. This makes a lot of sense when one thinks of something like a ladder. If 5 people own and share a ladder, it wouldn't really be taken care of. This is compared to if one of those 5 people own it, that that person will take greater pride and care with the ladder. However the usage would remain the same.
Now I don't agree with Aristotle on all of his points, especially being a girl... but I do think his mode of development theory is rather fascinating especially when compared to the ideas of primitive communism. In the ideas of primitive communism, hunter gatherers had communist societies and that this is the natural tendency of humans rather than the more superficial mode of capitalism. But is communism really the natural tendency of humans or is it the natural tendency to establish households and then cities in this concept of the political animal?
Or is it more mixed as Aristotle has divided human behaviour by how they obtain their food?
Finally, I would rather we not discuss all of Aristotle's concepts or attack Aristotle for holding certain views since it is not really related to what is the natural tendency of man. Although such a discussion on Aristotle would be fascinating... I feel that discussion is for a different conversation.
