Abstract
The detailed interpretation of five selected books of Aristotle's Politics shows political science at the time of its birth; this is the moment when the community is recognized as a specific philosophical problem and at the same time the subject of necessary practical care. The significance of this step can be assessed in comparison with the previous tradition, especially with the position of Plato.
Singling out of the polis and its inner structure as a real axe of political life and thought reveals the understanding of the nature of the political, whose sovereignty is given by the ability to include all other activities, attitudes and preferences. This is an understanding that reoccurs at other central points of the history of political thought, and Aristotle's doctrine of the polis can therefore be considered decisive for transmitting the legacy of classical political philosophy to later epochs.