«The family is a new idea.» This paradox reminds us of the silence of the classic social philosophies concerning this subject. Hegel, however, and Blondel (notably in The Trilogy) took up anew the ancient distinction between the domus and the civitas. Two ideas of freedom and of the mind clarify the understanding of this elementary and foundational social relationship in a contrasting but complementary manner. The article also evokes the contribution of other philosophers, Christian and Jewish, French and German, to a task which has been up to now reserved for moralists and poets.
