Abstract

The paper addresses an alternative Aristotelian conception of politics vis-à-vis the prevalent modern conception of the nation-state. It argues that the liberal multicultural nation-state cannot be reconciled with the classical Aristotelian conception of the state. The latter was based on and embodied a substantive conception of human good as well as required a shared notion of common good. This is not the case with the dominant modern conception of the state which, ever since Thomas Hobbes was seen in terms of the minimal conception of political community. The contemporary post-modern society is essentially a multicultural society, thus a single substantive conception of common good is in principle impossible within modern society. The paper concludes that the only possibility to realize an Aristotelian conception of politics is by locating it within the social setting of local communities