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As humanizations of nature or spiritualizations of sensibility (cultura culturans et culturata) the state and the city are studied in what Husserl called the science of the categorial forms of the pre-given historical world (A V 12 and also A V 10, 43 ff.). Our particular interest is the eidos of the invariant abiding same world's societal features as they are profiled in the flux of historical-cultural aspects. Both the polis and the state may be said to be empirical universals, i.e., universals or essences which have universal validity for a particular people at a particular time. What follows is an attempt to show, from the vantage point of Husserl's philosophy, that the polis enjoys a more basic necessity and value than does the state. This theory of the polis, which is much indebted to Aristotle, Hegel, Arendt and the communitarian-political tradition, has occasion to criticize not only Aristotle, Hegel, and Arendt, but also Husserl. Themes in this chapter will serve as a summary and conclusion to much contained in this book. (Unless otherwise noted, the references to Arendt are to The Human Condition; and those to Aristotle are to his Politics; for the Hegel discussion we will follow the provocative reading in Charles Taylor's Hegel.¹)

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-015-7991-9_5

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