ABSTRACT
Stein (1815-90), who spent much of his youth in an orphanage, studied law between 1835 and 1840 but was also trained in the humanities and the social sciences ( Staatswissenschaft). His scientific thinking, though, was shaped by two great idealistsHegel and Fichte-who, at that time, dominated the philosophical scene. After having received his doctor of law degree, he went to Paris to undertake research on the relationship between societal conditions and the law. By witnessing the consolidation of bourgeois power, through contacts with such leading personalities as Victor Considerant, Etienne Cabet, and Louis Blanc, through contacts with
progressive workers' and artisans' associatIons, and simply by being part of the general political climate, Stein 'experienced France as a workshop where history was being made. '2 For him, the years in France not only provided the clue to understanding social and political developments, past, present and future, but also seem to have determined his position in the history of social theory as a joint product of French positivism and Hegelian idealism.
