ABSTRACT
Classical political philosophy is non-traditional, because it belongs to the fertile moment when all political traditions were shaken, and there was not yet in existence a tradition of political philosophy. Compared with classical political philosophy, all later political thought, whatever else its merits may be, and in particular modem political thought, has a derivative character. This understanding of the situation of man which includes then the quest for cosmology rather than a solution to the cosmological problem was the foundation of classical political philosophy. Political philosophy will then be the attempt to replace opinion about the nature of political things by knowledge of the nature of political things. Political philosophy is the attempt truly to know both the nature of political things and the right, or the good, political order. Originally political philosophy was identical with political science, and it was the all-embracing study of human affairs.
