Executive summary (added September 13, 2018, edited July 19, 2019, and May 19, 2026): Dealing with other bodies politic is the third stage of political life, after societies’
- formation (as if by marriage),
- dominion over non-social communities (as if by having children).
Having been used in the first two stages, dialectic can be used in the third, to make peace rather than war. Being the eristic of external politics, war has no psychological cause that would absolutely prevent the making of peace. War is a state of mind, which does not think non-agreement can become agreement. Pacifism has this state of mind.
External politics are international relations. These represent the third of the “stages” in political life (29. 1), which we enumerate:
- The joining of wills into a society, which rules itself (29. 11).
- Such a society’s ruling over a non-social community in a body politic (29. 12).
- Dealing with other bodies politic (29. 13).
Polytropy 