"Tehnicizirana" politika, te u tom kontekstu zaborav pojma dobra kao čovjekova dobrog života, čini nužnim ponovnu procjenu pojma političkog, što rezultira ispitivanjem njegove biti. U tom se smislu antičko-grčka percepcija politike pojavljuje ključnom u potrazi za odgovorom. Aristotelova praktična filozofija kao jedinstvo etike, ekonomike i politike predstavlja se u svojoj punini upravo kao philosophia anthropina - filozofija o ljudskim stvarima. U takvom kontekstu politika ostaje izraz ljudske prirode, znakovito ukorijenjena u širini ljudskog života kao put ili način ostvarivanja njegovih najviših (...) stremljenja. Bivajući takovom, neraskidivo je povezana sa svojom svrhom - zajedničkim dobrom građana; država djeluje kao politička zajednica utemeljena na načelima slobode i pravednosti. Takova posebnost pojma politike - unutar svoje vezanosti za etiku i njezina praktičkog značenja za čovjeka - može preživjeti samo kroz suočavanje sa zaboravom njezina izvornog značenja.The “technicalized” politics, and in that context the oblivion of the concept of good as man’s goodlife, urges the reappraisal of the concept of the political, resulting in the questioning of its essence.In that sense the ancient-Greek perception of politics appears crucial in the quest for the answer.Aristotle’s practical philosophy as a union of ethics, economics and politics manifests itself in itsfullness precisely as philosophia anthropina – philosophy about human matters. In such a contextpolitics remains the expression of human nature, significantly rooted in the entirety of human life asa path or way towards the realization of his highest aspirations. Being such, it is unbreakablybonded with its purpose – the common good of citizens, the state acting as the political communitybased on the principles of freedom and righteousness. Such particularity of the concept of politicswithin its link to ethics and its practical meaning for man can survive only through confronting theoblivion of its original meaning. (shrink)

Mediteran je prostor susreta. Susretanje s jedne strane znači komunikaciju, aktivnost, otvorenost, prožimanje, dok s druge strane znači i sukob, često i rat, uništenje, istrebljenje. Susretanje je, dakle, istodobno opasnost i šansa, prijetnja i prigoda, mogućnost iščeznuća i predložak za novi kvalitet, što se na Mediteranu jasno ogleda. Neprestani napon, odnosi harmonije i suprotnosti, sličnosti i različitosti, pokazuju Mediteran u bitnom upravo kao prostor posredovanja, a posredovanje kao uvjet mogućnosti nečeg takovog kao što je Mediteran.Jedno od temeljnih posredovanja, iz kojeg (...) proizlaze ostala, jest odnos čovjeka i čovjeka, što bi se, govoreći jezikom pitanja, moglo drukčije odrediti kao pitanje mogućnosti i svrhe ljudske zajednice, odnosno bîti političkog. Na Mediteranu je, između ostalog, izvorište dva, mogli bismo reći oprečna, ali određujuća pristupa ovom pitanju: tzv. tradicionalni pristup politici – antičkogrčko shvaćanje politike kao djelovanja slobodnih i jednakih građana, koji u državi kao političkoj zajednici ozbiljuju bitne svrhe ljudskoga dobroga i pravednog života te čiji najreljefniji izraz nalazimo kod Aristotela , dok je s druge strane ono što nazivamo novovjekovnim pristupom politici, koji predstavlja nasuprotni pol antičkogrčkom određenju odnosa. Radikalni obrat nastupa upravo s Machiavellijem, a raščlambom njegova djela razabiru se i utjecaji na suvremenost.The Mediterranean is a meeting point. On the one hand, meeting points imply communication, activity, openness and interlacement, while on the other, conflict, frequently even war, destruction and extermination. Meetings, therefore, represent both danger and opportunity, threat and occasion, the possibility of annihilation and a model of a new quality, which the Mediterranean clearly mirrors. Its endless tension, the relations between harmony and opposition, its similarities and differences reveal the Mediterranean, in its essence, as a zone of mediation, and mediation itself as the very prerequisite of the existence of something like the Mediterranean.One of the most fundamental mediations, out of which all the others derive, is the relationship between man and man. Once translated into the language of questions, this could be reformulated as the question of the possibility and purpose of human society, i.e. the essence of the political. The Mediterranean is, amongst other things, the source of two, one could say diametrically opposed yet determinative approaches to this issue: one is the so-called traditional approach to politics – the Ancient Greek understanding of politics as a set of actions by free and equal citizens, who fulfil the purposes of a good and virtuous life in a state as a political community, the most outstanding example of which is formulated by Aristotle – while the other is the so-called modern approach to politics, which is the polar opposite of the Ancient Greek definition of the relationship at hand. With Machiavelli a radical shift takes place, and the analyses of his work disclose his influence on contemporaneity. (shrink)