The doctrine of communistic equality, as preached by some theorists in fifth- and fourth-century Greece, and as satirized by Aristophanes,805 had no appeal for Aristotle. It was, to him, merely a thinly veiled individualism. He saw through the selfish partisanship of both oligarchs and democrats, and recognized that all men are poor judges in matters that concern themselves.806
The excessive individualism of the radical democrat of his day, which permitted the majority to confiscate the property of the minority in the name of a false equality, was as hateful to him as it was to Plato.807
As seen above, he insisted that economic or political equality should not be demanded, except on the basis of equality of service.808
Exploitation by the radical democracy was, in his eyes, as bad as the rule of a tyrant,809 and the ruthless individualism of the classes was no better.810
Like Plato, he would oppose to both of these the common interest, and would unite both masses and classes in the aim to realize the highest moral life for the individual through the state.811
He refuted the Sophist’s theory of social contract and of justice as a mere convention.812
As Stewart has observed he realized that “more powerful causes than the mere perception of material advantage brought men into social union and keep them in it.”813
Each citizen, he held, is not his own master, but all belong to the state. Each is a member (μόριον) of the social body, and the concern of each is naturally relative to the good of the whole.814
Aristotle’s further criticisms, of minor significance, on the suggestions of Phaleas and Plato for equality of possessions are as follows: