Tilo Schabert's architectonic science

Abstract

Tilo Schabert’s The Second Birth of Man: On the Political Beginnings of Human Existence consists of a restatement, under modern conditions, of Aristotle’s claim that politics is an “architectonic science.” Schabert’s discussion of creativity, of bodies, of soul, of God, of freedom, and of friendship creates a synthetic account of political action in its fundamental sense. In this article I trace the arc of this synthesis and assess what is ever ancient and ever new in this remarkable book.