Abstract

The purpose of this thesis was to analyze the nature of social ensembles. This involved the primary task of explaining why social ensembles evolve, which in turn led to a better understanding of their proper function. The overall analysis was based on the work of the German philosopher Hegel, particularly as expounded in his The Philosophy of Right. ;Through analyzing the main themes of this seminal work, I was able to trace the development of the consciousness of freedom as it traversed the arduous path of its realization. This was shown by analyzing the different stages through which the universal will develops and transforms its activity from abstract to concrete modes of expression. This developmental movement was shown to be immanent in nature. ;Overall, what the analysis showed was how the activity of the will moved from the most abstract stage of its expression, viz. personality, into progressively more concrete spheres of activity. The other spheres were successively property and contract, moral consciousness, the social sphere, and finally the political sphere. ;This development showed in the end that the Hegelian conception of the social results in the construction of a socially organized community where all relations are mutually interdependent. To put it in terms that are relevant to the title, one can express what was accomplished in this project in the following way: it was shown how the will moved through the various stages of its development--as the consciousness of freedom--and how its movement culminated in expressing itself in the state as a sphere of activity whose relations are organically interconnected. This organic interconnection of all relations was shown from Hegel's point of view, to constitute the matrix that manifests universal freedom in its most concrete form