A practical branch of philosophy that is concerned, at the most abstract level, with the concepts and arguments that revolve around the political opinion. The meaning of the term political is itself a matter of inquisition in political philosophy. Broadly, however, one may characterize as political all those practices and institutions that are concerned with government. Many of the ideas illustrates in this study examine how a nation-state can enable its citizens to lead the actualized form of ‘good life’ suggested by moral philosophy.
As a normative discipline, it is thus concerned with what ought to be the purpose of human lives and how this purpose can be promoted in practical, rather than with a description of facts—although any realistic political theory is necessarily related to these facts. The political philosopher is thus not concerned with how power dynamics work or how, by various systems of democracy, decisions are arrived at as with what the aims of the whole political process should be in the light of a particular philosophy of life. This branch of philosophy was not only recognized in ancient Greece but also in other countries at the same time such as China.
The first elaborate work of European political philosophy is the Republic of Plato, a masterpiece of insight and feeling expressed in the form of a dialogue meant for recitation. And inspired by its historical impact, it remains a deeply plausible explanation of political philosophy that is rampant even today.
