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Ages ago, Plato understood justice as the purport & the essential purpose of the very existence of the state. Though Plato distinguishes between the political justice of the state & the personal justice of the individual soul, it was Aristotle who in his practical philosophy developed, apart from the general justice, an appropriate understanding of the special or particular justice & its significance for social progress. The first part of this paper deals with the different types of justice, & the second with civil society. In order to understand the contemporary theories of political justice & the roles of civil society in its realization, the author looks into the history of the European political thought & "civil society," since "civic" or "civil society" ("societas civilis"), was originally a political society. In modernity, Hegel began differentiating between the state as a political community & the "civil society" as a nonpolitical society; his intention was not to separate but to integrate them by means of the public scrutiny & the citizens' governance, Thus Hegel linked Locke's & Montesquieu's opposing definitions of the relationship between the civil society & the state. This is all the more important since Hegel's philosophy is often misinterpreted as the state totalitarianism since we overlook the dangers coming, especially today, both from the civil society reduced to economy & the absolute state, the dangers that Hegel, with his concept of customariness, detected & avoided. 11 References. Adapted from the source document.

The author's starting point is the principle of contemporary phenomenology: we are able to comprehend & adequately evaluate our own & new regimes in general, only if familiar with their predecessors & their traditions in their otherness. Naturally, in this paper the otherness is neither the essential natural world nor its cosmological structuredness as a universe, but a historical & political world as well as the possibilities of its alterations & transformations. Despite the changes it has gone through in the course of history, it has retained its cultural-historical continuity & its "fundamental features" in the form of a certain, in Husserl's words, "contingent a priori," that precedes certain cultural & historical experiences, but not "the entire experience," as Waldenfels points out. In order to adequately grasp these complex problems of cultural & political world, the author refers to Aristotle who, when asked in the second volume of his Politics about the best state, uses the then known forms of the state to show "what is right & useful in them" & what is not, & also that it is possible not only to transcend the existing forms but to elaborate them & search for "something new." Contrary to the modern reduction of the concept of the state to "the organization of government," Aristotle defines the state by means of three prerequisites: the land, the people, & the government & "always by one of these three components, while the other two are somehow implied." Thus, in all its various forms, the state always includes all these three components: the land as territory, the people as identity & the sum of its citizens, & sovereign government as state authority of the people. Regarding the opportunities for political activity in the contemporary global world, the author opts for a certain practical philosophy that, despite the universal crisis of today's society shows that the practice of good life is still possible & that not everybody has given up on it. This also means that in reflecting upon & in accomplishing the good life it is possible to build upon Aristotle's practical philosophy. Besides the phenomenological & practical philosophy, the final part of the paper looks into the political philosophy of American communitarians & shows that communitarian universalism & historicism are complementary to the European phenomenological & hermeneutical philosophy & productively assist it in developing a new historical thinking as practical knowledge that is applicable to our contemporary situation & that, historically, & in a variety of spheres & at different levels enables us to act ethically/politically in today's global world. 12 References. Adapted from the source document.

Using as his starting point Hegel's explanation of the principled differentiation between the "manner of studying" & acquiring actual knowledge in the Antiquity & the Modern Age, the author demonstrates that both Hegel & Husserl, each in his own philosophical fashion, try to link the substantiality of Antiquity & the subjectivity of Modernity as well as to deepen &, consequently, put an end to the one-sidedness, both in the ancient tradition of multi-formity ("des sinnlichen Daseins") & in the modern "abstract form" of the manifesting subjectivity. The notion of "the actual knowledge" as actualization and "spiritualization" of the universal, with Hegel ends in "Selbstbewusstsein" & with Husserls in "phanomenologisches Residuum," representing "das Feld einer neuen Wissenschaft," which Husserl calls "die Phanomenologie der Lebenswelt" & Hegel "die Phanomenologie des Geistes." Hegel & Husserl evolve actual knowledge in the "form of science," which is -- as "Wissenschaft von der Erfahrung des Bewusstseins" -- different from the dogmatic metaphysics, empiricism, & positivism of sciences. "Erfahrung" cannot be reduced to sensory experience; it -- as the source of "des neuen wahren Gegenstandes" -- also represents the experience of human thought & understanding. This already envisions in Hegel's works the rehabilitation of different kinds & ways of genuine knowledge conceived by Aristotle in his Nichomachean Ethics. The author emphasizes the significance of practical knowledge, as extrapolated by Hegel in his philosophy of objective spirit &, particularly, in the notion of "Geist-Kapitel" in his Phenomenology of Spirit -- not in the form of metaphysical definitions taken over by Hegel from the practical philosophy into the speculative one, but for the sake of developing the abilities of the spirit as "reality" in the historical world & its own historical "logic." This peculiar logic of The Phenomenology of Spirit differs from the later Science of Logic like metaphysics. While the latter represents the thinking of the world prior to the creation of the world, The Phenomenology of Spirit makes for the practical philosophy of the historical world of life & requires the development of various kinds of knowledge, especially modern spiritual sciences appropriate for the contemporary reality & world history. Adapted from the source document.

The author first defines the various facets of globalization in today's world, emphasizing the key changes that are intensifying communication among peoples, nations, & cultures all over the world. However, parallel to this, there are other pressing problems: from the ecological crisis, to the realization of human rights, to the anomie of life & work. All this proves that globalization is not only an economic & technical but, ultimately, practically an ethical & political issue. Along the lines of Hegel's philosophy of world history & Aristotle's practical philosophy, the author has come to view contemporary globalization as a step forward for world civilization, ie, as a possibility for the realization of freedom & a good life. Globalization, of course, scares people with its unpredictability & the erratic development of "global society," which (in line with Beck's distinction between the First & the Second Modernism) today is represented as a society of nation-states, on the one hand, & a "global society of transnational actors," on the other. Due to the increasing globalization & the danger of reducing all beings to things, it is central to point out that a human being is not a thing among other things, & that the appreciation & realization of life requires nurturing & cultivating the variety of human knowledge pertinent to different spheres of the historical world of life. Thus, the relevance & the role of practical philosophy is gaining significance regarding the -- to the historical Being -- proper understanding & fulfillment of human potentials in today's world. Adapted from the source document.

In the wake of the 'Kant revival,' which has spawned a plethora of works on his philosophy by its contemporary interpreters & advocates such as Herbert Schnadelbach, Hans Lenk, Konrad Cramer, Wilhelm Vossenkuhl, Volker Gerhardt, Karl-Otto Apel, Otfried Hoffe & others (whose studies were published this year under the title of Kant in der Diskussion der Moderne), the author tries to prove, by means of an analysis of Kant's treatise Uber den Gemeinspruch: Das mag in der Theorie richtig sein, taugt aber nicht fur die Praxis, that not only did Kant in his later works draft & expound the program of a practical philosophy of morality & right, politics, & history, but also that in the last three chapters of this work, this philosophy evolves into a modern liberal theory of morality, state law, & international or "international civil" law built around the central principle of Kant's practical philosophy: "Was aus Vernunftgrunden fur die Theorie gilt, das gilt auch fur die Praxis.". Adapted from the source document.

The author presents the central postulates from the latest works by John Rawls & Michael Walzer as the most prominent representatives of liberalism & communitarianism in contemporary US political philosophy & points to their predecessors & parallels in political philosophy, from Kant & Hegel to Mill & Dewey. Since liberals & communitarians of today do not any longer advocate a "society" or a "community" in the traditional sense, but the "posttraditional" liberal-democratic community in which liberal principles of justice & human rights can be realized, their thinking is interesting also to those peoples who have set out to build liberal-democratic societies outside the states of the developed West. Naturally, the realization of freedom & human rights depends on the cultural tradition of each people & on the historical "lebenswelt" in general, but also on the virtues of liberal citizens who, in a communal political life, realize "postulates of communality comprised in liberalism" (Walzer) & thus foster a free & good human life. Adapted from the source document.

The author presents the central postulates from the latest works by John Rawls & Michael Walzer as the most prominent representatives of liberalism & communitarianism in contemporary American political philosophy & points to their predecessors & parallels in practical philosophy, from Kant & Hegel to Mill & Dewey. Since liberals & communitarians of today do not any longer advocate a "society" or a "community" in the traditional sense, but the "post-traditional" liberal-democratic community in which the liberal principles of justice & human rights can be realized, their thinking is interesting also to those peoples who have set out to build liberal-democratic societies outside the states of the developed West. Naturally, the realization of freedom & human rights depends on the cultural tradition of each people & on the historical "lebenswelt" in general, but also on the virtues of liberal citizens who, in a communal political life, realize "postulates of communality comprised in liberalism" (Walzer) & thus foster a free & good human life. Adapted from the source document.

The author presents the central postulates from the latest works by John Rawls & Michael Walzer as the most prominent representatives of liberalism & communitarianism in contemporary American political philosophy & points to their predecessors & parallels in practical philosophy, from Kant & Hegel to Mill & Dewey. Since liberals & communitarians of today do not any longer advocate a "society" or a "community" in the traditional sense, but the "post-traditional" liberal-democratic community in which the liberal principles of justice & human rights can be realized, their thinking is interesting also to those peoples who have set out to build liberal-democratic societies outside the states of the developed West. Naturally, the realization of freedom & human rights depends on the cultural tradition of each people & on the historical "lebenswelt" in general, but also on the virtues of liberal citizens who, in a communal political life, realize "postulates of communality comprised in liberalism" (Walzer) & thus foster a free & good human life. Adapted from the source document.

The author presents Vico's & Hegel's theory that without a state, there is no historical nation. According to Vico, world history is the process in which the rulers of the strongest & most ethical-politically virtuous replace one another. For Hegel, history crystallizes into rational principles that become the basis for customs & the national advancement of the society. Certain nations become the carriers of world history as they take more seriously freedoms in the state. The author suggests that modern understanding of history should not forget Hegel's concept of practical wisdom. For this reason also, Croatia is not obliged to accept the international pragmatists' dictation, but Croatia's ties to the West must be based on principles of truth & justice. Adapted from the source document.