ABSTRACT
Although politics is one of the most meaningful and significant human practices, it eludes any straightforward definition. This chapter discusses several notions of politics which have been coined since antiquity to the present day. In some of these frameworks, politics is defined as organized and institutional violence, while in others as a process of achieving consensus. This survey of concepts leads to one conclusion: it is impossible to capture the nature or the essence of politics. This, however, does not make it any less exigent for us to engage in politics and to take a position on politics. Anxiety seeps through this crack between indefiniteness and necessity.
