YENİ BİR OİKOS OLARAK MODERN SİVİL TOPLUM

Even though the explanation of civil society on the basis of normative ground has been a general disposition, this base generally conceals the phenomenon of civil society instead of explaining its content. The acknowledgement with an apriori claim that civil society is a sphere of freedom, however, confines the concept to the theoretical area by detaching it from social reality. Bearing this in mind, the study aims to offer an insight to the concept of civil society by referring to oikos-polis dichotomy, which constitutes the basis of political thought in Ancient Greece by approaching with suspicion to all normative claims on civil society. Oikos-polis dichotomy, which is roughly based on obligation-emancipation distinction, provides a possibility to investigate comparatively the difference between Ancient period and the modern understanding. With respect to the phenomena of separation of economy and politics, ascendancy of work to the centre of social life, and sovereignty of instrumentalised reason, which are all embedded into capitalism, the study claims that civil society in modern era creates a “new oikos”. Therefore, the understanding of civil society whose boundary has been drawn as a sphere of non-political liberty is clarified by referring to its link with oikos.