The order of the world in house and state: governing social life in a West-Eastern comparison

Abstract

As basic institutions of human coexistence in the world, the house and the state continue to prove themselves and to change. House (i. e., the domestic setting as the primary economic and social unit) and state are the subject of a comparative study on an ecotheoretical basis. In the global context, the modes of societal regulation have developed differently in the domestic sphere and in the sphere of the state. In them and with them, order is created in the world and for the individual and collective conduct of life. The institutional frameworks of house and state in the world are ways of shaping existence that are juxtaposed in their European-Occidental and East Asian forms: The treatment of the topic takes place along the ancient Greek basic concepts and forms of thought of the oikos, the polis and the cosmos on the one hand and the ancient Chinese categories jia, guo and tianxia on the other. They are discussed with their ethical, political and economic references in their traditional and contemporary meaning and with regard to their ecological viability. The interest in a discursive understanding of sustainable, life-serving orders in the face of global challenges is the guiding motive.