In Search of Order: a Glimpse into Eric Voegelin's Political Thought

Abstract

The thesis offers insights into the political thought of Eric Voegelin, based on the five volumes of his work "Order and History." Voegelin provides us with important contributions on the various ways that societies formulate their existence by articulating their political order, which finds expression in representative symbols. Voegelin's tracing of the history of order is fully elaborated by his philosophy of history and his theory of consciousness, establishing the foundation for his discovery of man's attempt to endow meaning upon his existence as he moves through history. The thesis begins by analyzing Voegelin's study of the earliest civilizations and concludes with reflections on the contemporary world based on Voegelin's political theory.