Although Hegel articulated the same tension between individual autonomy and community as the philosophers of the Scottish Enlightenment, he did this without reference to an ethical unity from without. Instant, Hegel sought to resolve the contradictions that existed in civil society as a result of its particularity by reference to the universal state. It is only at this point, then, that the idea of civil society is first concerned with the proper relation between the state and civil society as separate spheres.