A Survey on the Relation between Ethics and Politics in the Comparative Approach of Western and Muslim Scholars

Since the ancient times, one of the concerns of the political scholars and philosophers has been the interactions between Ethics and Politics in the destiny of the society. The conceptual framework of this paper is based on the theory of the unity of the ethics and politics. We also applied the analytical research method for examining the issue. In this article, the views and thoughts of “Plato” and “Alasdair MacIntyre” in western tradition and “Farabi” and “Ghazali” in Islamic tradition about the ethics and politics and concepts such as government and its role in bringing up the citizens in the society, utopia, different kinds of utopia, destination, moral virtues and conditions, and characteristics of the rulers were scrutinized and then, by the comparison of the said views, differences and similarities of them were identified. It was found that the common view point of both groups is the unity of ethics and politics. This research starts with the question of: "what is the relation rate of Morality and Policy from the viewpoints of Plato, MacIntyre, Farabi, and Ghazali?" Based on the research question, the hypothesis of the research is "from the viewpoint of Plato, MacIntyre, Farabi, and Ghazali, there is a unity between the policy and morality categories." It is concluded that according to the important role of the mentioned scholars in government in training, teaching, and guidance of the citizens, and also the observance of the morality rules by the government, the policy and ethics have a unique and tied up relationship.