Edith Stein’s An Investigation Concerning the State: Sociality, Nationhood, Ethics

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

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2. Edith Stein’s Concept of the State

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

      PDF

   2. The Place of the State in Phenomenological Reflection

      • Mariano Crespo

      Pages 3-15

   3. Woman and the State in Edith Stein’s Thought

      • Eva Reyes-Gacitúa

      Pages 17-27

   4. People and State in Edith Stein’s An Investigation Concerning the State

      • Marcela Aranda

      Pages 29-39

   5. Certain Legal Presuppositions About the Idea of Law in Edith Stein’s An Investigation Concerning the State

      • Marcelo Gidi SJ

      Pages 41-52

   6. Legal Personhood in Positive Law and Edith Stein’s An Investigation Concerning the State

      • María Eliana Martínez Fernández

      Pages 53-62

   7. Sovereignty and the Ethical Demands of the State

      • Luis Mariano de la Maza

      Pages 63-74

   8. Religion, Mysticism, and the State

      • Juan Francisco Pinilla

      Pages 75-82

   9. The Challenges Posed by the Community of Law-Givers and Law-Followers in Edith Stein’s Idea of the State

      • Antonio Calcagno

      Pages 83-94

3. Applications and Extensions of Stein’s Theory of the State

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 95-95

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   2. Bioethics and Edith Stein’s An Investigation Concerning the State

      • Alberto Rojas Osorio

      Pages 97-104

   3. The Issue of the State’s Power and Its Abuse in the Literature of Gertrud von le Fort in Light of Edith Stein’s An Investigation Concerning the State

      • Clemens Franken

      Pages 105-114

   4. The Justification of the Modern State in Edith Stein’s An Investigation Concerning the State: A Political Theological View

      • Fredy Parra

      Pages 115-126

   5. Forms of the State: An Approach to the Work of Edith Stein Based on Its Aristotelian Influences

      • María Esther Gómez de Pedro

      Pages 127-136

   6. The Current Process of the Constituent Assembly and the Relevance of Edith Stein’s An Investigation Concerning the State

      • Soledad Alvear

      Pages 137-148

This book explores Edith Stein's phenomenology of the state. It features chapters on the application of Stein’s political philosophy to real issues and questions affecting nations today. The contributors also situate Stein’s political theory within her larger philosophical corpus.

The collection examines An Investigation Concerning the State from various angles. Scholars first consider some of the direct claims Stein makes about social and political ontology. They mine her work for its implications for and applications to contemporary debates. Then, the contributors position her work in relation to other figures in phenomenology, including Edmund Husserl and Max Scheler. Finally, Stein’s views are brought to bear on other disciplines, including feminism, theology, and literature.  The contributors also use her theory of the state to address various contemporary issues, including bioethics and rights, globalization, as well as social and political inequality.

The view of the state that emerges has implications for how we do politics and make ethical decisions. Moreover, Stein's work has an impact on our views of sociality (as opposed to the sociality of contractarian views of the state), pedagogy, women, theories of justice and law, as well as social psychology and religion. This volume helps readers better understand this vital voice in political philosophy and appeals to students, professors, and researchers working in the field.  

• Edith Stein and Social Phenomenology
• Edith Stein’s An Investigation Concerning the State
• Edith Stein’s Political Philosophy
• Empathy in the Edith Stein’s Theory of the State
• Globalization and Social and Political Inequality
• Nationhood, State and Mysticism
• Positive and Apriori Law
• Rights, Bioethics, Ethics and Values
• Social Psychology, Feminism, and Political Theology
• Sociality and Social Ontology
• The Issue of State Power and Its Abuses
• Woman and the State
• Edith Stein and Political Theology
• Edith Stein and Theory of the State

• Departamento de Teología, Universidad Católica del Norte, Antofagasta, Chile

  Eva Reyes-Gacitúa

• Department of Philosophy, King’s University College, London, Canada

  Antonio Calcagno

EVA REYES-GACITÚA, Dr. in Dogmatic Theology for the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, with the thesis “El Espíritu Santo, origen de la esponsalidad: En la Expositio super Cantica canticorum de Guillermo de Saint-Thierry.”  She was the first Chilean woman to receive her doctorate degree at the School of Theology of PUC. She also holds a major in Education and is a Religion Teacher.  Currently, she works as a professor and researcher at the Universidad Católica del Norte, Antofagasta Chile, where she is the Director of the UCN Journal “Cuadernos de Teología” and is in charge of teaching affairs. She has written several publications. She is a member of the Chilean Theology Society; member and secretary of the International Association of Patristic Studies; member and secretary of ALALITE  (Latin American Society of Literature and Theology); and member of the Edith Stein Interdisciplinary Research Center, PUC, Chile.

Antonio Calcagno isProfessor of Philosophy at King’s University College at Western University, London, Canada. In 2015 he became a Member of the College of the Royal Society of Canada. He is the author of Giordano Bruno and the Logic of Coincidence (1998), Badiou and Derrida: Politics, Events and Their Time (2007), The Philosophy of Edith Stein (2007), Lived Experience from the Inside Out: Social and Political Philosophy in Edith Stein (2014). He is also the editor of Gerda Walther's Phenomenology of Sociality, Psychology, and Religion (2018).

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