Thinking about Political Things

Andrew Murray offers us an ingenious and humane reading of Aristotle's Politics. He presents the Politics as its author intended it to be received, as a work that clarifies how we must think about political matters and order our civic communities if we are to bring out the best in our humanity. He does this by blending classical political philosophy with the concerns of contemporary political societies of the Pacific islands: the chapters of the book move back and forth between Aristotle and life in Melanesia, Polynesia, and Micronesia. Murray acknowledges the sharp difference between the classical city and the modern state, and shows what we who live in modern states are in danger of losing if we abandon Aristotle for Hobbes.' Robert Sokolowski, Elizabeth Breckenridge Caldwell Professor of Philosophy, The Catholic University of America