In his _[Nicomachean Ethics](https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/peters-the-nicomachean-ethics)_, Aristotle defines #politics as 'the study of the greatest good, for the greatest number.'
He ends up in a bad place, but the first few sections are well worth reading--and will sound familiar to readers of Mises' _Human Action_ or Rothbard's _Man, Economy, and State_.