ARISTOTELES AND THE SENSE OF POLITICAL COMMUNITY AGAINST LIBERALISM

The communal nature of Aristotle's philosophy results from the various forms of analysis of the politics the philosopher shows in the articulation of the following features: the thesis that man is a political animal; the way the political community is accomplished through this thesis, in which the logos itself manifests as a shared discoursive activity; the cultivation of certain ethical and political virtues present in the human companionship, above all, friendship; citizen self-sufficiency and its relationship with the autarchy of the political community. In an attempt to bring up to date the general principles of Aristotelian communitarianism, the resumption of a modern concept of community can be compatible with certain liberal theses, especially the issue of individual freedom (autonomy) and the fact of the ethical and political pluralism in the modern societies.