Aristotle

The keystone of Aristotle's contribution to political anthropology is his notion of practical philosophy. Being a kind of philosophy, or science, practical philosophy is not just a human faculty relative to choice, like, for example, wisdom (phronesis); nor is it a kind of theoretical investigation, which deals with the world as it is, independently from human desires, aspirations and intentions. Rather, it is an attempt to understand the principles of choice in human action, aimed at orienting decision-making. Hence, it investigates the position of humans in reality: their ways of connecting to the world via their cognitive and volitional capacities. Aristotle's practical philosophy was eclipsed during modernity, but it regained attention through the work of both continental philosophers (e.g., Hannah Arendt and Eric Voegelin) and analytical philosophers (e.g., Elizabeth Anscombe and Philippa Foot): they highlight the relevance that Aristotle's methodology can still have for political anthropology.