DIFFERENCE AND THE CONCEPT OF THE POLITICAL IN CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL-PHILOSOPHY

A striking feature of contemporary political philosophy is the emergen ce of the nature of the political itself as a central theme of discuss ion. There are various reasons for this development, but all of them m erely reinforce the problem posed in its most stark form by postmodern theory. This is the problem of determining what concept of the politi cal, if any, can accommodate the extreme diversity that is the main fe ature of contemporary western life. That is the question with which th e present paper is concerned. The three currently influential concepts of the political are analysed, after which it is suggested that a fou rth concept, which is a revised and reformulated version of the classi cal idea of civil association, provides the basis for a concept of the political best suited to modern conditions of increasing diversity.