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What is politics?
Our word politics comes
from the Greek politēs,
"citizen", who
would live in a polis (city, community).
The hint of violence in
the whole thing is the Indo-European root pelē,
("high fortified place"-
like the Acropolis above). But
the essence of political life is the shared
evocation of the spiritual experiences of the citizens. Or, as Aristotle
put it, a human being
is a zöön politike, a political animal whose
purpose
is to live socially. What holds the polis together is homonoia
or "like-mindedness."
Last updated: December 19, 2007
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