On The Theory Of The State And Civil Society In Hegel

Hegel plays an important role in the western history of philosophy. At home and abroad, there is a great deal of research on his thought. However, the research on his theory of the state and civil society is insufficient. But the theory laid a foundation of the western civil society, and had promoted the development of western political philosophy. Therefore, the thesis makes a deep and systematic study of Hegel's theory of the state and civil society, and explores the great significance of Marx and Engel's study of the state and civil society.First of all, the thesis explores the origin of Hegel's theory of the state and civil society. The thesis draws a conclusion that the development of civil society theory before Hegel had two phases: classical civil society theory梩he high-integration of civil society and political state, and contemporary civil society theory梩he dual division of civil society and political state. The two kinds of theories offered the basis for Hegel's study of state and civil society.On the basis of that, the thesis then focuses on analyzing and studying Hegel's fundamental theory deeply. Hegel made a distinction between civil society and the state, put forward the accurate concept of "civil society", stated the main character of modem civil society theory, and founded the modern integral and systematic theory of civil society. He considered that civil society was the middle zone between the family and the state, the relative ethic concept to natural society and political society, and the product of the capitalist system. Hegel completed the theoretical differentiation between civil society and the state successfully, and pointed out the relations between civil society and the state. Thatinis, the latter relied on the former in essence. Hence Hegel founded the basic theory of "the state superior to civil society ". However, the theory had many defects to some extent as Hegel inspected civil society in ethic instead of realistic way.Hegel's theory influenced Marx and Engel's greatly, which constituted the starting point of Marx studying the relations of civil society and the state. Marx inherited and transcended the theory, described the concept of the civil society and the relations between civil society and state. He drew a conclusion, which is opposite to Hegel's, it is not the state dominated civil society but the latter did the former. Marx realized the great transformation to Historical Materialism From this conclusion.In addition, Hegel's theory initiated the new argument and concerned hot points in the western theory circle, such as civil society and market economy, democratic politics, and interest groups. We should analyze the Hegel's theory in the opinion of Marxism and handle the relationship between civil society and state so that promote the system reform of our government.