Ursprünge des politischen Denkens

Long before European political thought matured into an autonomous sphere in Athens, it entered the world stage in the form of cosmology and myth. This multi-layered volume attempts an archaeology of ideas and breaks with the Plato-centric notion. In an interdisciplinary tour de force, the volume demonstrates that the origins of political thought in Europe are spatially plural and diachronic. From ancient Mesopotamian cosmology and archaic lyric poetry to tragedy and the pre-Socratic logos, the genesis of Europe’s political philosophy becomes comprehensible as an existential experience of crisis. Where divine decrees were superseded by a logos requiring justification, a fascinating archaeology of ideas unfolds.