The Current Process of the Constituent Assembly and the Relevance of Edith Stein’s An Investigation Concerning the State

Abstract

My approach to Edith Stein’s work on the state brings together law and political theory. The constituent assembly process of the Chilean State appears as one of the many challenges of the current government (2018–2022). The complexity of this process calls for different readings and approaches to the topic. I approach the issue by deploying certain fundamental ideas found in Stein’s work An Investigation Concerning the State: the text’s method as an attitude, “To the thing themselves!”; the relevance of the acting forces involved in the configuration of the state; the role of communities; and the idea that the state, without the recognition of its citizens, is not really a state. My article harmoniously synthesizes philosophical, legal, and historical principles in order to reveal certain hermeneutical elements pertinent to the present Chilean political moment.