gathering, either on land or water, while the second and most important, refers to the divisions of the Roman people according to their estates and age.
The result of this division was the creation of two major groups in Roman society, the patricians or aristocrats and the plebeians or commoners. The
codification of Roman law stipulated that while rich and poor were entitled to its protection, a slave was not. As in Greek society, there was a clear division
between a free man and a slave. In the seventeenth century, the word “class” entered into the English
language for the first time. In natural sciences, the word class refers to an equality of different types of, say, plants or animals. Yet, it was not how it applied in social
description. The entry of “class” into the English language in the mid-seventeenth century refers to a decisive moment in the development of capitalism. The
appearance of the word “class” is linked to fundamental changes in the economy and to their effect on social relations. The new idiom of class is an expression of
social conflict.
b. Aristotle ’s Theory of Class
Aristotle 384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato
and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government,
ethics, biology and zoology. Aristotle has a point of view toward the understanding of class. He divides the society into three classes. The first one is
the very rich, secondly, the mean middle class, and thirdly the very poor. These three classes will determine whether a government built is good or bad.
Based on his opinion, the middle class is the best class who takes the rule. He wrote:
…moderation and the mean are best and therefore it will clearly be best to possess the gifts of fortune in moderation; for in that condition of life men
are most ready to follow rational principle. But he who greatly excels in beauty, strength, birth, or wealth, or on the other hand who is very poor, or
very weak, or very much disgraced, finds it difficult to follow rational
principle… Those who have too much of the goods of fortune, strength, wealth, friends and the like, are neither willing nor able to submit to
authority. The evil begins at home; for when they are boys, by reason of the luxury in which they are brought up, they never learn, even at school,
the habit of obedience. On the other hand, the very poor, who are in the opposite extreme, are too degraded. So that the one class cannot obey, and
can only rule despotically; the other knows not how to command and must be ruled like slaves. Aristotle 1
The class that is in charge of ruling will build the characteristics of a country and also a community. Aristotle wants to show that middle class will
bring a community into a good one. Living in a middle class situation enables a person to understand the situation of a rich man or a poor man. This situation will
also enable the person to act rationally towards two “extreme” classes; the rich one and the very poor one. Wisely then did Phocylides pray -
“Many things are best in the mean; I desire to be of a middle condition in my city Aristotle 1
.” The role of the middle class also has a great contribution in building
whether a country is democratical or oligarchical controlled by a small group of people. When there are numbers of the middle class in a government, the
government will be democratic. In the other hand, if the rich one or the poor one takes the chance, it can be predicted that the governmental will be oligarchical.
