The political
In Contemporary Thought
In Modern Thought
In Classical Thought
Greek societies thought of “the political” as a broad concept that encompassed both public decision-making and communal self-definition.1 Balot writes that:
Modern political scientists and theorists draw sharp distinctions between public and private and take the public as their chief subject; they assume the existence of states with typically large bureaucracies; they exclude consideration of the ethical development of citizens; and they draw a bright line with religion and the state.2
As a scholar of [[virtue ethics]], Balot argues that in addition to the power field of politics, “the political” in Greek culture was also “the field of activity in which citizens struggled for power by claiming ethical and intellectual virtue for themselves.”3
Ancient Greece had a distinctive focus on producing virtuous citizens through [[education]]. Communal norms defined how citizens should conduct themselves starting, which were reproduced through the politics and policing of virtue and vice. [[Religion]], too, played a central role in maintaining these standards of communal conduct.
Definitions
Balot
At a highly general and non-culturally-specific level, “the political” refers to a field of activity in which power is exercised and contested and in which collective forms of “association and dissociation” are realized.4
In the context of ancient Greek societies, Balot believes “there was an essential link between the political and the ethical.”