Conclusion

Summary

If humans are political animals by nature, then the ordering of their communal life requires the guidance of a prudent law-giver and practically reasonable laws. The purpose of the political community is both to allow individuals to satisfy basic wants and to realise the potentiality of human flourishing. Neither the political community in its fully developed sense nor its laws, are, however, at least without further assistance, naturally arising. They rather emerge through the direction of a law-maker who employs insight and practical rationality to legislate for the community’s good. This ordering of a political community, on the basis of a legislator’s practical wisdom, and prevailing authoritative opinions about justice, is nothing other than its law.