Abstract

Łukasz Dominiak, The Four Concepts of ‘zoon politikon’: Remarks Concerning.

the Problem of the Political Nature of Man
The article examines four different models of understanding the concept
of zoon political. It is presupposed that this classical notion can still
serve as a means of description of the fundamental tenets of political
life as it appears within contemporary political communities. The first
model taken into consideration is called “the individualistic concept”
and it generally tends to reduce the political space to the issue of economic
management. The second model, “hegemonistic”, makes the
public debate nothing more than a war of ideologies. The third model
amounts to the “perfectionist view” and it seems necessarily involved
in wise or just men’s looking down on their fellow citizens, so it carries the conviction that some people may be possessed of truth whereas in
democracy there can be only various opinions about what is true or
just. The fourth model, “deliberative”, is the most relevant one in the
context of contemporary politics. Here the central, epitomic figure is
Socrates, who does not possess the truth but is constantly seeking for it
and searching possible answers in the realm of opinions, thus gaining
excellence as humanly possible.