Based on a discussion of Pierpaolo Cesaroni’s latest book, La vita dei concetti, this article aims to clarify the conditions for an adequate understanding of the singularity of the social, by reflecting on the relation between political philosophy and social sciences. After briefly presenting the main contributions of the book, particularly with regard to the reconstruction of the distinctive perspective of historical epistemology, it underlines the internal tension with conceptual history, with the aim of highlighting the two paths opened to any attempt aimed at supplanting modern political science, the source of the mechanical paradigm that prevents us from understanding what holds men together in a social totality. The difference between ancient political philosophy and modern social science is finally appreciated through a comparison concerning the meaning that both give to the two main categories that elucidate the very idea of political society, that is, government and justice.
