History of Ideas: What Remains Valid?

Abstract

History of ideas has produced an impressive amount of theories, concepts and reflections of a lasting nature. The author, Director at the Centre for European Integration Studies (ZEI) in Bonn, has selected some key representatives of the evolution of political philosophy which represent those ideas which are of a nature to impact on today’s search for a new democratic order in Europe. Aristotle, St. Augustin, Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes, Alexis de Tocqueville and Hannah Arendt have contributed the most lasting thoughts about the nature of politics, the relationship between
freedom and authority and the quest for a human order which can balance rights and duties.