The intersections of friendship, love, beauty, and war remain central issues in the fields of political philosophy and the humanities, profoundly influencing both personal identity and the structure of society. Recent scholarship has sought to unravel how experiences of love and the appreciation of beauty inform the foundations of political order, often referencing the enduring debates found in the works of Plato, Aristotle, Rousseau, and Kierkegaard. A persistent problem in the field concerns how the pursuit of beauty and the bonds of friendship and love shape, complicate, or even undermine collective life, especially in democratic contexts where passions, ambitions, and ideals can either reinforce or destabilize the civic ethos. Despite rich literary and philosophical explorations, significant questions remain about the ethical and political consequences of these passions, their role in fostering virtue or vice, and their relationship to conflict and war.

Current studies highlight that for classical thinkers such as Plato, love is not only a personal longing but also a metaphysical drive that can draw individuals away from worldly affairs or disrupt their engagement with the polity. Aristotle, meanwhile, ties friendship and shared virtues intimately to the functioning and flourishing of the polis. Modern and contemporary theorists like Rousseau and Kierkegaard further complicate the picture by foregrounding the tension between self-love, empathy, religious passion, and the demands of political or civic life. Yet, while these canonical frameworks provide a wealth of insights, they leave certain ambiguities unresolved—particularly about how love of beauty both enriches and endangers political engagement, and how the passions shaped by war affect the health and justice of democratic institutions.

This Research Topic aims to advance scholarly understanding of how friendship, love, beauty, and war interact to construct, challenge, and transform political order. It invites critical analysis of both historic and contemporary texts, encourages dialogue between political philosophy and literature, and seeks to contextualize perennial themes within new political realities. The objective is to clarify the conceptual stakes of love and beauty for political life, examine how they provoke or resolve conflict, and explore their potential to either invigorate or undermine democratic institutions.

The scope of this Research Topic includes explorations across all periods in the history of political thought, as well as interdisciplinary work at the intersection of philosophy, politics, and literature. We particularly encourage articles that engage with theoretical, historical, and textual analyses. To gather further insights in this wide field while retaining a focus on the role of passions and aesthetics in public life, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:
• The influence of love and beauty on political ambition and civic action
• The role of friendship and virtue in constituting the political community
• Literary and philosophical representations of war and its impact on political order
• The relationship between passion, reason, and authority in classical and modern thought
• Challenges posed to democracy by eros, friendship, and aesthetic desire
• The interplay of individual and collective identities shaped through love and conflict
• Comparative studies of these themes across literary and philosophical traditions

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Friendship, Love, Beauty, and War: Shaping the Political Order