Abstract

Stein combines insights from Aristotle’s Politics with the awareness of liberty in German Idealism as well as with ideas by Saint-Simon and the French “Utopians”. Already as a member of the Young Hegelian circle around Theodor Echtermeyer and Arnold Ruge he recognizes a mistake with interpreting Hegel’s philosophy of right in the sense of the later Marxist materialism, a mistake which is already due to Hegel himself. A kind of ownership had to be found, Stein states, “which will provide for personal possession yet not make it an absolute obstacle for the complete development of personality” (Stein, 1842, p. 26 f.). For him “true Philosophy of action” was realized in an administrative doctrine and an educational system that provides for the challenges of the industrial age as perfection of Saint-Simon’s vision of the Age d’or as a result of the industrial revolution. The work building on these premises connects the concept of the state to the foundations of an egalitarian society of work. In terms of history, it pursues the development of rational state administration as well as the emancipation of the state from feudal-hierarchical ties, as a result recognizing universal suffrage and general tax liability as the foundation of a solid funding of the state and systematic finance as well as individual liberty. Thus, Stein paves the way toward social reform and the modern social state.