 Stein also discusses the ethical value and possible moral obligations of the state, as well as its role “as a bearer of historical events”. For Stein, the state doesn’t have any proper ethical value; rather, values can only be attributed to their underlying communities (1925: 111[152]). Accordingly, the state cannot be an ethical subject (1925: 119[172]). The reason is that values and the obligation to realize or facilitate them can only be “acknowledged in acts of feeling” (see also  sect. 2.2);  “the state is not capable of such acknowledgment (Kenntnisnahme), and in particular incapable of feeling” (ibid.). Ultimately, then, the state can act freely, and indeed remain a lawful or rightful state, without giving any consideration to ethical norms. However, that doesn’t exclude that, via individual state representatives, the state remains “in touch” with the moral domain and is affected by ethical demands.