Introduction

Abstract

The phrase “the problem of order” does not refer to a specific problem but to a large and complex problem context. This problem context encompasses some of the most fundamental questions in social and political thought. “It” is in this sense a perennial problem. As generic and transhistorical as “the problem of order” therefore is as a descriptor, this handy phrase is ultimately misleading. There is no one general problem of order, and the problem context to which the phrase refers is broad, diverse, and fundamentally historical. I have chosen the book’s title in spite of its potential to be misleading because it is at the same time extremely evocative. It suggests that the problem of social order goes beyond questions of human social order since all gregarious animals exist in social orders. The problem of order also goes beyond questions of social order since it simultaneously refers to symbolic orders—from mathematical systems and scientific theories to religious beliefs and political ideologies. And both the animal nature and the reflexive capacity of humans play a prominent role in problems of human social order.