ABSTRACT

The book argues that political communities are substances but only in a loose, non-strict sense. The principle of unification of political communities is claimed to be political authority, that is, a source of power that is acknowledged and supported by individual citizens to the extent that they see it as pursuing common goods. The introduction justifies the topicality of the book and claims that the proposed view of authority – based on an Aristotelian account of action – differs from that of Hobbes, which is based on a purely negative view of freedom and still excises a lasting influence in political philosophy. The proposed, non-Hobbesian conception of authority can help to address some problems of current political liberalism and to question the current understanding of the practical-theoretical distinction in political philosophy. Thereby, the proposal offers insights into the methodology of social and political sciences, following in the footsteps of Max Weber and Eric Voegelin. The introduction argues also for a revision of the traditional suspicion about the use of metaphysics in political philosophy.