Foundations of Hegel's Social Theory: Actualizing Freedom - Paperbackby Frederick Neuhouser (Author) The author's purpose is to understand the philosophical foundations of Hegel's social theory by articulating the normative standards at work in his claim that the three central social institutions of the modern era the nuclear family, civil society, and the constitutional state are rational or good. Its central question is: what, for Hegel, makes a rational social order rational? In addressing this question the book