Civic Virtue, Civil Society and the State: An Interpretation of Modern Civil Society
Author: Yin-wen Tsai
Abstract / Chinese PDF Download
The concept of civil society in eighteenth century’s Scotland had a economical transition in that civil society is interpreted as a pure economic activity, aiming at individual and collective wealth, and delinking with religious faith, civic duty and political virtue. This essay begins with that conception of civil society to discuss the conceptual formation of modern civil society and its polemics. It is concerned with the complicated relationship of civic virtues, commercial capitalism and sovereign state. And with regard this, it tried to explicate the civil society discourses of Adam Ferguson, Hegel and Marx. Finally, it is concluded with Leszek Kolakowski’s critique of Marx’s civil society, arguing that modern civil society, insofar as to unify myriad and heterogeneous factors in modern society (such as the separation between civil and political society, and the conflict identity between citizen and bourgeoisie) inevitably leads to despotism.