POLITICAL DIMENSION OF THE ART OF WAR BY SUN TZU AND ITS GAME-THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
POLITICAL DIMENSION OF THE ART OF WAR BY SUN TZU AND ITS GAME-THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Summary/Abstract: The starting point of this research is the well-known methodological question about the mutual relations between human activity spheres. These domains are politics, war and economy. In particular, in this paper, politics and war are examined. Various academic sources show different standing points of researchers focused on this abstract and methodological issue. “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu, as one of the most ancient and most popular books on strategy, has been put into the central point of this paper as a case study. The Chinese classical text is often perceived as an universal handbook of efficient human acting (in terms of praxiology). Therefore, it is applied not only to military issues but – in the contemporary world - to the business and social relations. The main problem analysed in this research is the potential application of Sun Tzu strategic principles into politics and its implications. The political dimensions of “The Art of War” are examined through three perspectives. Direct references to politics have been shortly depicted at first, then praxiological core of Sun Tzu’s principles, and then some game-theoretical aspects that were developed into more complex problems. The Art of War by Sun Tzu refers directly to politics in a few cases only and his remarks are clearly too limited to consider him as a political thinker. However, a wider praxiological aspect of Sun Tzu’s ideas makes them suitable to be applied to other domains of social life. The main thesis of this article is that the meaning and the value of Sun Tzu’s book is far less important than its possible interpretation (or misinterpretation) by political and military actors.

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