Since ancient times, the state has been an integral part of society, as well as a way of organizing it. Already in Antiquity, representatives of intellectual circles began to reflect on the nature of power. The ancient Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle considered the state a system of norms that determines the lifestyle of all involved in government, and the Roman thinker Cicero saw in him the personal responsibility of the ruler. However, over the centuries, the idea of ​ ​ this phenomenon has changed. In the Middle Ages, political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli and philosopher Thomas Hobbes believed that the state turns into a mechanism of gifts and punishments, and power into a special force that is not alien to moral violence. A little later, John Locke justifies the division of power into legislative, executive and judicial, and Kant speaks of eternal peace as the ultimate goal of all states. Subsequent philosophers mainly criticized power: it is powerful, can easily take possession of the minds of people, so it is necessary to determine its boundaries and be able to direct it to the service of good goals. This book will help you see how the definition of the state has changed in world philosophy, and understand what the main luminaries of humanitarian thought have invested in it.