What Is Political Philosophy and Why It Disappeared From Our World
This essay, that was first presented to the Russian and French audience at Berdyaev Readings conference in October, 2016, addresses the authority, or lack thereof, of ‘the good’ in political philosophy. The author proposes, as per the analysis of Pierre Manent among others, to differentiate “ancient” and “modern” politics precisely on the basis of their orientation toward the good. In the article the author examines the well-known (especially to the followers of Leo Strauss) “lowering of standards” typical for modern political thought, and concludes that, despite the converse statements, such lowering fails to be truly practical, as phenomena without self-limiting principles cannot be enduring. The essay concludes with the speculation on how the work - the new understanding of work, - can help integrating the modern and the new.