Staaten und Ordnungen

Eric Voegelin (1901–1985) was one of the leading exponents of neoclassical political philosophy in the 20th century. Voegelin developed the key principles of his political theory by analysing the political debate of the 1920s and 30s and attempting to establish state theory as a humanities subject. However, during the course of his theoretical work, he increasingly came to doubt that the concept of the state formed a fundamental category of political theory. In line with the central question posed by the series of publications entitled “Staatsverständnisse”, whose very name suggests that through the ideas of political thinkers its readers will gain a contemporary understanding of the state, Voegelin deconstructs the concept of the state, an undertaking originally inspired by state theory, and develops its political consequences, which ranges from expounding on the defining relationship between politics and religion, which is concealed within the concept of the state, to devising a political theory which can form the basis of our knowledge of political order.

With contributions by:
Barry Cooper, Daiane Eccel, Jürgen Gebhardt, Bruno Godefroy, Michael Henkel, Manfred Henningsen, Oliver Lembcke, Matthias Riedl, Tilo Schabert, Christian Schwaabe, Hans-Jörg Sigwart, Klaus Vondung