The theory of civil society of Hegel

Hegel's philosophy of rights is a synthesis of the European social contract school and the historical school of social and political theory. The aim of this thesis is to present Hegel's theory of civil society as an account of alienation and to show that overcoming of this alienation or division is possible only by developing an objective common ground of sense and meaning. In the first part of the thesis Hegel's critique of modern society and the state has been set in connection to the social contract tradition of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and J. J. Rousseau. In the second part of thesis, by departing from the definition of civil society at the same time as a society of wealth and poverty, it has been shown that civil society has a contradictory structure. However, it may be nonetheless claimed that Hegel, besides his account of the problems of civil society, investigates how freedom in civil society is possible. Hegel takes for granted that a free society is only possible by developing an inner unity of society and individual. But civil society, although its objective institutions entail rights, can hardly establish the unity of society and individual. Hegel"s theory of civil society, in broader sense, his objective theory of Sittlichkeit offers rather rich material for an analysis for determining of contradictions and problems of civil society. In the last part of the thesis, as has been shown, viewed from the perspective of contemporary conditions, the objective theory of Sittlichkeit offers a liberating perspective to individuals as well as to the society as a whole. Keywords: Hegel, Sittlichkeit, Civil Society, State, History of World.