Essay on Brotherhood: The Political Thought of Modernity

Abstract

The essay examines the main lines of interpretation of the problem of “brotherhood” within the framework of the three “great ideologies” of the 19th century, inherited by the next century – liberalism, conservatism and socialism. Particular emphasis is placed on understanding the complex relationship between early socialism and religion/religious issues – and understanding “brotherhood” as the principle of building horizontal affective ties. Early socialist thought – for which one of the key concepts-images is “brotherhood”, is interpreted in connection with religiosity and the problem of a new religious basis for the desired social order. Attention is drawn to the fundamental importance of Feuerbach’s philosophy, which opens the way to thinking about society and about a person and about historical transformation in the future without the indispensable establishment of a new religion (or a new understanding, interpretation of the old). In the aspect of conservative thought, the author analyzes the tension that exists between the representation of the desired/due social structure as built according to the family model, the combination of the concepts of “family” and “brotherhood”, with the potential hierarchy inherent in these concepts, their emancipatory potential, on the one hand, is on the other hand, the potential aimed at establishing the present order turns out to be a co-present, internal tension. The latter aspect is especially revealed in the interpretation of nationalism – and nationalist thought of the 19th and 20th centuries. In conclusion, questions are raised about the relationship between the concepts of “brotherhood” and “sisterhood”.

Keywords

• ideology
• political theology
• nationalism
• romanticism
• socialism
• philosophy of religion