Political Biology and Prohairesis in Aristotle’s Thought

This article aims to discuss the Aristotelian political philosophy with his biological approaches. To do so, the argument of “political animal” argued in the Politics is re-assessed with the arguments establishing the differences between human and animal. At the root of Aristotelian political philosophy, there is a distinction between animal and human. While the human is handled as an existence which has some abilities that the animal does not have; the animal is thought as a being which has limited living functions compare to the human. Through this distinction, Aristotle developed a thought of living which is specified for the human and this kind of living gains its meaning by alienating from bare life which is referred to the animals. Aristotle defines this distinction with the word of “prohairesis”. This word points out the distinction between human and animal, and it also places the distinction at the center of the politics to relate it with the notion of the “bios-politikos”. Bios politikos, which also means the “political life”, does not only refer to the pure politics; rather, it also reveals that the animalistic nature of life has been left behind. Therefore, the term bios-politikos which is established with the act of prohairesis shows that the politics is constructed with the engagement with the biological. As a result of that this article aims to argue why and how the Aristotelian political philosophy is handled under the notion of the biological context