The Exopolitics of Plato & Aristotle: Between Isolationism & Interventionism

It is often said that the micropolitical tradition of social philosophy began with the Greeks. Indeed, the etymological definition of politics, as public affairs --res publica-- of the polis, made the two concepts synonymous. It is also claimed that the reason Greek thinkers spoke so little about macropolitics was that they were unaware of the significance of interstate relations in their world. Yet, their emphasis could indicate that they were mainly concerned in the endopolitics of the city-state and considered exopolitics beyond the purview of political philosophy. Perhaps, philosophers did not consider questions of macropolitics important because the ultimate aims of foreign policy were not moot theoretically. The primordial Greek dichotomy of human activities within either physis or polis, relegated foreign affairs to the chaos of the former, while only civilized praxis was worthy of inclusion into the latter