Politics, Nature, and Piety: On the Natural Basis of Political Life

The essays in Politics, Nature, and Piety take up the central question of political philosophy: What is the good life, and what place do nature, politics, and piety have in chat life? "The unity of the essays," Alex Priou writes in his introduction, "lies in the various tensions explored: between ancients and moderns, religion and philosophy, magnanimity and prudence, justice and friendship, and, most fundamentally, spiritedness and the intellect." Laurence Berns proves an excellent guide for beginning one's study of the great books of political philosophy, from Plato to the present.