Urbanities,
Vol. 3
·
No 2
·
November 2013
© 2013
Urbanities
132
Aristotle (Politics 1253a): ‘For nature, as we declare, does nothing without purpose; and man
alone of the animals possesses speech. The mere voice, it is true, can indicate pain and pleasure,
and therefore is possessed by the other animals as well (for their nature has been developed so far
as to have sensations of what is painful and pleasant and to indicate those sensations to one
another), but speech is designed to indicate the advantageous and the harmful, and therefore also
the right and the wrong; for it is the special property of man in distinction from the other animals
that he alone has perception of good and bad and right and wrong and the other moral qualities,
and it is partnership in these things that makes a household and a city-state’ (
poiei oikian kai
polin
).
I wish you a good conference.
