La natura dell'uomo e le sue comunità: uno studio critico delle teorie politiche realiste e idealiste

In his last work, entitled Man’s Nature and His Communities (1965), Reinhold Niebuhr offered a retrospective view of his intellectual experience. This essay is the central and namesake chapter of the book in which he proposed a critical survey of idealist and realist political theories. From ancient Greek philosophers, like Aristotle and Plato, until some contemporary thinkers, such as Marx and Freud, Niebuhr analysed the different interpretation of human nature in western political thought. He also studied the crucial role of Christian authors and modern ones in the development of political and social institutions of Europe. Through this long and original review in which the desire to find a valid synthesis between realism and idealism is clear, he proposed again his unique interpretation of politics.