Thesis: Money, while not existing by nature, is a precondition to being human.
It is commonly said and widely accepted that “money is the root of all evil,” but this phrase fails to give any credit to the crucial role money plays in our lives. In fact, money does not just make day-to-day life more convenient, but it is, in fact, necessary to being human at all.
Aristotle argues, in Politics, that reaching a level of self-sufficiency, that is having the necessary preconditions for virtuous activity, is necessary but not sufficient for becoming happy, the end of human life. This means to be at least minimally human, one should at least have the potency to be happy, meaning one must be at least potentially self-sufficient.
Self-sufficiency, however, is only achievable through being a part of a city, as a city is the only form of community that can provide the necessary external goods that allow people to flourish. This is because the other, lower forms of community do not have the diversity needed to provide the diverse goods required for self-sufficiency.
So, the city, in being a diverse community, requires money so there can be proportional reciprocity in exchanges, for the baker and builder would have no way of exchanging goods equally without some common means of exchange.
So, despite money being seemingly disconnected from being human, I will argue that money, while not existing by nature, is a precondition to being human.