I've written this before, but unfortunetely it was lost due technical problems.

Let me put the questions again.

Voegelin, on CW11, said that "...a zetema [is] a search for truth both cognitive and existential. Definitions in the course of a zetema, however, are cognitive resting points, which articulate the view of reality that has been gained at the respective stage in the existential advance toward truth. As a consequence, the validity of the definitions has two dimensions. In the one direction, they must be tested against the data of reality to which they purport to refer; in the other direction, they must be measured by the existential level reached in the search for truth..."

On The Nature of the Law (CW27), he put that: (a) a legal norm is a rule; and (b) a rule intends a truth.

On CW27 and Anamnesis, Voegelin remarks that: (a) Law has two dimensions (one, metaphisical, as the substance of order that pervades all realms of being; other, social, as the valid norms in an organized society), and (b) legislation, also, has two dimensions (one, from the ontological core of normativity -God and spoudaious; Faith and Reason; Revelation and Philosophy; pneumatic and noetic experiences; etc.-; other from the lawmaking process through social institutions).

Voegelin also consider, on The New Science of Politics (and other texts as well), that "society is Man written large"; and that the end, goal, telos of society is living in Truth, i.e., in attunement to the true order.

The great problem here is that I'm afraid to push my interpretation of Voegelin remarks to far in a way to consider that the life of men in History is a zetema on itself. In other words, all social organizations, including their Law, are -to repeat Voegelin words- "cognitive resting points, which articulate the view of reality that has been gained at the respective stage in the existential advance toward truth", and they should keep the "search for truth", remaining open in the Bergson sense, in order to avoid social crisis due to a pressure of reality long suffocated (deliberately or not).

The interpretation seemed OK to me at the first sight. But, I can see huge problems on that as well. Here go my questions.

I. Could life of men in History be considered a zetema on itself?
II. Could not only individuals but a community (society) be able to search for truth, and make definitions about it?
III. Could a self-comprehension of society, its political organization and its legal norms be considered definitions from a zetema?

Answering positevily seems to imply that:

a) to live is to inquire;
b) not only individuals, but societies, civilizations, and mankind altogether would be in the same search for truth, with its many different cognitive resting points, in the same road, towards a single goal (like a highway in a holyday!);
c) studies on political science are a (individual) zetema of a (social) zetema;

and, the most important point to me,

d) the lawmaking process is a zetema, and hence it "must be tested against the data of reality to which they purport to refer; [and] in the other direction, [it] must be measured by the existential level reached in the search for truth";

Would Voegelin really agree with that? Or has Voegelin actually said that?

Best regards,
Paulo Sanchotene