Le politique comme " forme de vie " : autour de la cité grecque

"Ancient Greece is the most beautiful invention of modern times", wrote Paul Valéry. At the heart of this invention lies a singular form of collective organization that embodies the uniqueness of the Greek experience: the city. This session will focus on the development of the city (polis) as a theoretical object and imaginary figure in contemporary thought. It is obviously first and foremost a question of political practices: because it is based on the pooling of words in a space where equals freely discuss and decide together, the ancient polis, according to some in contemporary political philosophy, offers invaluable resources for thinking about our political present. But this political experience is inseparable from a specific way of doing things together, made up of gestures, ways of perceiving, attitudes and behaviors. In this sense, the polis is also the emblem of a "form of life" in which authentic politics is realized. The session will focus on the theoretical implications of such a conception of the city, which is at work in the work of Hannah Arendt, in contemporary political science and in the recent work of historians of the classical city.