Phronēsis: Aristoteles Düşüncesinde Etik ve Politika İlişkisi

Abstract

Aristotle’s influence on Western political theory can also be seen in contemporary political theory from various aspects. Phronēsis is a key concept that makes Aristotle significant, precisely because it establishes ethics in an individual framework as well as politics within the framework of the polis – society, the state and rulers/legislators – as a whole. The dual face of phronēsis, on the one hand, reveals itself as an ethical responsibility that enables the individual how to act in the everyday life; on the other hand, it provides the individual to pursue a life based on virtue according to eudaimonia (happiness) as a state of decision of politics. The point of departure of the thesis is to do an epochal reading of the dual face of phronēsis which is located at the roots of contemporary political theory – ranging from biopolitics to hermeneutics, practical philosophy to deconstruction. The examination of historical and intellectual periodization that enables the epochal reading, and pyhsics and metaphysics that condition the ethical and political argumentation, are crucial elements that allow us to reach the main goal of the thesis. Thanks to such a reading, it is aimed make clear the differential character of the political which must be kept in connection with the state of decision.