“He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.”Aristotel · Politica · -335 · cartea I, capitolul 2
Whoever can live without others is no longer human: a god or a beast.
Here Aristotle attacks the illusion of absolute self-sufficiency. Whoever has no need of the city is no longer human in the full sense, but something above it, a god; whoever cannot live among people is something below it, a beast. Both cases escape the human condition. The hermit who proclaims himself independent of law is not a model of freedom, but a limiting case at the edge of the species.
Why it matters An antidote to the myth of the self-made loner: it reminds us that dependence on others is not a flaw but our definition.