Politics and Phronetics

Aristotle presents conflicting conceptions of the relation between Ethics and Politics. On the one hand, he has them as interrelated--the former is a preparation for the latter, and the latter is the actualization of the former. On the other hand, his highest Ethical Good, Contemplation, is explicitly apolitical activity. Christianity avoids any such confusion, with its distinction between 'rendering unto God' and 'rendering unto Caesar', which not only becomes ingrained in Euro-American culture, but implies that the basis of the distinction is a contrast between 'spiritual' and 'materialistic' Goods. But a more recent saying suggests an explanation of the distinction without invoking Metaphysical Dualism--'All politics is local'. For, Morality presumes to be Universal, which, in Political terms means that it represents an Internationalist perspective, which is usually far removed from Local concerns. Formulating the Politics vs. Ethics antagonism as Local vs. International demystifies their distinction, and suggests two ways to their reconciliation. First, the globalization of attitudes, which the Internet is effectively facilitating, can accelerate the Internationalization of Politics. Second, the cultivation of Individualism, as defined here, and as promoted by Evolvemental Phronetics, crosses borders without trivializing them. Particularity, i. e. defining someone as one of a type, is political partisanship, while Individualization transforms what one is part of to a part of what one is, i. e. transforms, for example, 'is American' from ='is a member of the set of Americans' to 'American is a member of the set of one's characteristics . Evolvementalism thus recovers the original Aristotelian conception of the complementary of Phronetics and Politics.