Abstract
The article aims at to discuss the bases of the notion of common good in Western political thought, from the short recovery of some central ideas of political thought from classical Greek antiquity (Plato and Aristotle) and Roman (Marco Tulio Cicero), to christian philosophy from the Middle Ages (St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas), until the doors of modern political thought (the political morality in Niccolo Machiavelli and the concept of general desire in Jean-Jacques Rousseau). Thus, it is intended to establish a kind of genealogy of the notion of common good and dialogue with the modern dimension of public interest. The method and technique used are, respectively, the deductive and monographic, and the bibliographic research.
Keywords:
common good; Western political thought; political morality; general desire; public interest