Abstract

The author presents Hippolyte Taine´s conception of society and state, which are, in her interpretation as well as Taine´s theory, deeply interconnected. It is quite obvious, however, that Taine was a committed liberal. This follows from his explicit ideas on the function of the state, his ruthless criticism of the Jacobin phase of French Revolution and Napoleonic conception of state as well as the state in which he lived, because that state stemmed from the Napoleonic conception. In the second part the author focuses on Taine´s description of the English system. Taine sees both its advantages and drawbacks. Generally speaking, he finds the English system preferable to the French one. However, on the basis of the theory of race, moment and environment, it was not possible to imple­ment the English model in France.