Publication Details

Abstract

Our intellectual tradition has its origins in the antique Greece where the idea was presented that Man is essentially free and the slave cannot be concidered a man. It does not mean that man is not under the rule of powers higher and mightier than he himself. Freedom is independence and self-sufficiency which can and should be achieved by man. He must, however, understand that he lives in a world where there is a rule of law which is characterized as cosmos, a well organized universe. Polis as a community of equal and free men is a natural location of man. It is polis that makes it possible that man has leisure enough to achieve self-sufficiency and independence and promote his efficiency. Efficiency is proved in competition with others; that is why the life in the polis is a permanent competition, POLEMOS. What was the basis of the greatness of the Greek world can, however, become a source of its decay, under certain conditions. It occurs when instead of understanding mere belief takes place and man no longer obeys the law of universe and begins to consider how to make use of the law for his advantage.