ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑ ΠΟΛΙΤΙΚΩΝ ΙΔΕΩΝ

History of Political Ideas –

From the 17th until the early 21th century

Editing:

Theodora Antoniou

Associate Professor, Law School, University of Athens

Abstract: This book deals with the development of the state and the individual from the 17th

until the early 21th century. It examines the philosophical and political thought, evolving

from the Renaissance to the first attempts to remove from the divine law through the scientific

method and natural law. The rise of the bourgeoisie and the capitalist economy will impose

the Enlightenment and theories of social contract to give way to individualism of Tocqueville

and Benjamin Constant. The revolutions of 1848 in France and the rest of Europe will lead by

the end of the 19th century to the industrial revolution and the great systems of thought, the

socialism and the Marxism. Meanwhile the German-speaking area in an attempt to unify used

as a means the “Begriffsjurisprudenz”, the legal positivism and the powerful state. The philoso-

pher who will be the master of the century, is Hegel. He will connect the two contradictory

and complementary ideas of the century, the history and the individual. In the transition to

the 20th century the predominant philosopher and sociologist will be Max Weber. He will

raise the standard of a strong charismatic leadership and will post the value or worthlessness

of democracy from the concept of Force (Macht). The 20th century is dominated by totalitar-

ian thinking, decisionistic thought (Carl Schmitt), but also by the strong contradiction of legal

positivism (Hans Keller) and the state theory as a sociological science of reality (Hermann Hel-

ler). Finally, the transition from the 20th to the 21st century shifts the center of gravity in the

US, where the political and philosophical thought migrated along with people (Karl Popper,

Hannah Arendt, the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt). At the same time developed

in the US the philosophical currents of libertarianism (Robert Nozick), contemporary commu-

nitarianism (Michael Sandel, M. Walzer, Charles Taylor), but also egalitarian liberalism (John

Rawls, Ronald Dworkin), which all revolve around how to interpret rights.

ISBN 978-960-562-378-4

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