Society, Rationality, History

One of the shortcomings of Plato's pioneering concept of a Rational society is an account of its genesis from non-Rational antecedent conditions.  The problem is not explicitly addressed until Hegel, likely influenced by Kant's concept of a 'Universal History', proposes that the historical process which yields such an ideal is itself Rational.  Still, his scheme remains speculative, until Marx interprets its pivotal moment, Contradiction, as an abstraction from concrete Class Conflict.  However, at the same, Marx uncritically assumes another of the abstract characteristics of the Hegelian scheme--Necessity--on the basis of which he asserts the inevitability of the revolutionary arrival of a Rational society.  But, subsequent events have tended to disprove that assertion, leaving the violence wreaked in its name groundless, and a Rational society unachievable.