 In the present context, the crucial historical stage is the second one. This is the stage of alienation, the stage of disunity which emerges from a simple unity before reconciliation in a higher (differentiated) unity (Inwood 1992: 36). This is the stage associated with present (capitalist) societies involving the problematic separation of individuals from their social role and community. In the first historical stage (of past pre-capitalist societies) there is a problematic relation, but no separation. And in the third historical stage (of future communist societies) there is a separation but it is a healthy rather than problematic one. In this second historical stage of alienation, there is a loss, or lack, of something of value; roughly speaking, it is the loss or lack of the individuals’ attachment to their social role and community. (More precisely, we might say that they have lost a sense of, and connection to, the community, and that they lack a healthy sense of, and connection to, the community.)