Hegel wants to preserve individual liberty and treats on structural problems of the rising industrial society. The philosophy of law and social philosophy combine the principle of individual liberty with objective restrictions in an egalitarian „labour“ society. His concept of political freedom refers to the idealistic reformulation of neoplatonism. According to that Hegels political philosophy and theory of society fails. Neither individual liberty nor rules of the market or of political performance belong to any kind of substantial rationality (idea). If (...) individual liberty should be kept in state and society, state and society aim not to the freedom of the whole but to the freedom of the individual. (shrink)

Lorenz von Stein ( 1815 - 1890 ) - wie Karl Marx in Preussen zeitlebens persona ingrata - sah in der sozialen Revolution keinen Ausweg aus dem strukturellen Burgerkrieg der industriellen Gesellschaft. Im Gegensatz zu Marx und Engels war Stein davon uberzeugt, dass die Ungleichheit der Menschen "nicht bloss das eigentliche Geheimnis, sondern auch die grosste Gewalt im menschlichen Leben (ist)". Damit machte er sich zu einem Apostaten des Junghegelianismus. Das auf diesen Pramissen aufbauende Werk verfolgt historisch und systematisch die (...) Entstehung der rationalen Staatsverwaltung sowie die Emanzipation des Staats aus feudal-hierarchischen Bindungen mit dem Ergebnis, im allgemeinen Stimmrecht und der allgemeinen Steuerpflicht das Fundament einer soliden Staatsfinanzierung und systematischen Finanzwissenschaft wie der individuellen Freiheit zu erkennen. Sein Werk nahm damit in vielerlei Hinsicht die Chancen und Grenzen der heute in Deutschland und Europa bestehenden Sozialstaaten vorweg. (shrink)

The three books ,,De concordantia catholica“ are deeply rooted in christian neoplatonism. But how Cusanus interpretated the political implications of the salvation in church and world showed a flexibility of thought unknown before: For him the conflict between Pope and Council, between emperor and pope has to be evaluated as a parallellism of the powers in church and world. On first sight the mandate of rule is constitutional based and orientated on Aristotle's Politics. Due to its true origins, consequently, it (...) refers in fact to the autoritarian tradition of platonism and legitimated the absolutism in church. The argument was instrumentalized by the arising territorial states in early modern times. (shrink)

An historical and intellectual review shows that the plan of realisation of the welfare state principle builds less upon philosophical concepts than upon religious, socialist, liberal-concervative, and socialdemocratic ideas. Lorenz von Stein combined socialist ideas of the public good, enlightment philosophy, and the Utopia of St.-Simon, Fourier and German idealism. Gouvermental achievements are limited to the economic capacity of he society, which is why financial science must,,...also establish the measure of the attainable for these tasks.“ With the transformation of the (...) SPD to a left-reform people's party, governmental concepts of social reform replace social revolutionary ideas. As liberal socialism maintains, the constitution results in a balance between neo-liberal thinking and the Keynesianism adopted by the german,,people's parties“. As a result challenge to the social state a society of dependent classes magnifies the,,social power“ of politics and damages the common good in the debit of present contributors and future pensioners of the pension systems. (shrink)