Did Aristotle believe that people who do not have aptitude or time to participate in governance should not be citizens?

Answer 1

Did Aristotle believe that people who do not have aptitude or time to participate in governance should not be citizens? The answer is no. Since there are, in fact, citizens who are incompetent and too busy, there obviously may be citizens who are incompetent or too busy. Since they are actual, they must be possible.

Remember Aristotle's orientation. Unlike his teacher Plato, Aristotle is very conservative. He thinks we should be very cautious about changing laws, which embody the wisdom of the ages. For him, politics is just a branch of practical knowledge. It deals with humans living in groups.

It we actually look at citizens, it's difficult to find one thing that they all have in common.

Normally, citizens are people who have political power in the sense that they are able to sit on juries and participate in the assembly [1275b]. Similarly, normally, citizens have one or both parents who are citizens.

Yet Aristotle realizes that there are exceptions, and he doesn't himself argue for a clear answer to the question, "Who should be a citizen?"

Remember that Aristotle believed in slavery. He probably thought of citizens as only being property-owning males.