Aristotle's Natural City in<i> Politics</i> 1.2 1252b1–4: A Philosophical Revision

This article discovers and revises the misconstruction, from medieval to modern political thought, of Aristotle's natural city in Politics 1.2 1152b1–4. It reports the Latin mistranslation by William of Moerbeke of hen pros hen that nature makes one part for one task, as cited by Thomas Aquinas in its first study. It documents, especially from Aristotle's comparative Parts of Animals , that nature makes a part for the whole. It identifies his doctrine of final causality as its basis. It documents that his disregarded philosophy of beauty determines the proportionality of a part in the whole. A new translation concludes it.