On the notion ofthe common good in the Western politicai thought: Between alleys and crossroads ofthe ancestral dimension ofthe modem concept of public interest

Abstract

The article aims atto discuss the bases of the notion of common good in Western politicai thought, from the short recovery ofsome central ideas of politicai thought from classical Greek antiquity (Plato and Aristotle) and Roman (Marco Tulio Cicero), to christian philosophy from the Middle Ages (St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas), until the doors of modem politicai thought (the politicai morality in Niccolo Machiavelli and the concept of general desire in Jean-Jacques Rousseau). Thus, it is intended to establish a kind ofgenealogy ofthe notion of common good and dialogue with the modem dimension of public interest. The method and technique used are, respectively, the deductive and mono-graphic, and the bibliographic research.