Between the 19th and the 20th century, German culture experienced a conflict between two apparently opposite tendencies. The first leads thinkers to detach themselves from the dominant ideology of the time; the second bears on the need to take a stand on the crisis of modern West-ern civilization. The category of the Unpolitical is meant to interpret the former. Yet, by this term, we do not necessarily mean an attitude aimed to abandon the activities characterizing the life in the community or to ignore the debate concerning political affairs. The adjective “unpolitical” has not to be automatically identified with “anti-political”. Rather, it designates a way to address political issues that characterize those who reject to live in the city without asking what their life consist of, what kind of behaviours and dispositions it requires, and what ends does it have. The essays collected in this monographic issue of Ethics & Politics investigate the relation between the city (understood as a model embracing both society and the modern State) and the thinker (construed in a very broad way, so as to include the philosopher, the artist, the historian, the writer, etc.). The main aim is to explore the various possible ways in which the life of an individual mind can interact with the life of the historical community.
