Character and System

The primary concern of Modern Political Philosophy is System--the number of Rulers, i. e. one, a few, or all, and the means of becoming a Ruler, i. e. inheritance or election, with a common third possibility, conquest, typically ignored.  Thus, the Moderns jettison a primary concern of the Ancients--Character, which is why Machiavelli is the last of the Ancients rather than the first of the Moderns.  Likewise, Organicist Political Philosophy is closer to the Ancient.  For, its concept of the Ruler--the writ large brain--involves both Character and System.  First, the fundamental principle of Character is that as an Organ in an Organism, it functions in the service of the latter, i. e. its conduct should not be self-serving.  Second, the brain is the focal point of the sensory-motor network.  Thus, likewise, the Ruler must receive and take into account information from everywhere in the Polis, which it must coordinate with motivating all its Members. Failures of each of these are common expressed as "out of touch", and "lack of leadership". So, the writ large sensory-motor network constitutes the most fundamental Political System.  On this model, the variations in the means of communication over history suffices to demonstrate the contingency of System.  Likewise is the ample evidence that Ruler corruption and/or incompetence is not exclusive to any System.