Abstract

The history of concord as a political concept registers its progressive fading. As a central element in the foundation of the political community, as it was in Greek thought, concord becomes the goal to be reached and it is confused with social stability and peace. After a brief analysis of the thought of Hobbes and Locke on political concord, Rawls's thought is examined with particular attention. One wonders if overlapping consensus can be considered as a form of political concord. The results of this investigation lead us to ask whether political concord should be sought in common political values or in the participation in a cooperative deliberation on common choices and actions, as had been somehow prefigured by Aristotle.