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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
II: Theory of Human Nature
When we speak now of a theory of human nature, we do not refer to what is usually understood by that name, namely everything that a person who begins to reflect wants to know. Our theory concerns the vocation of man. According to it, there is no universal vocation of man, because every person has his own ideal; and only the striving after this ideal will make him moral.
The opposite theory or a universal one would be only formal and would not bring people any further in a moral respect.
The vocation of man should be stated as a whole; and this can be found, because every individual presents the whole. Man should be considered as human society, or as the relation of man to man. The universal schematism for the theory of man is: all human society can be reduced to family, hierarchy and republic.
Preliminary Reminder. One should not expect here the customary theory of natural right. One cannot derive the concepts of family and republic from the concepts of right; they stand much higher. The concept of a republic implies something that is an end in itself, something that presents the vocation of man in its perfection, when that vocation rests upon the agreement of everyone. The republic will be derived from the vocation of man, and from the fact that the vocation of man is achieved only in society and the community of everyone.
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