Book contents
- Diagnosing Social Pathology
- Diagnosing Social Pathology
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Note on Citations
- Chapter 1 Can Societies Be Ill?
- Chapter 2 Society as Organism?
- Chapter 3 Marx: Pathologies of Capitalist Society
- Chapter 4 Marx: Labor in Spiritual Life and Social Pathology
- Chapter 5 Plato: Human Society as Organism
- Chapter 6 Rousseau: Human Society as Artificial
- Chapter 7 Durkheim’s Predecessors: Comte and Spencer
- Chapter 8 Durkheim: Functionalism
- Chapter 9 Durkheim: Solidarity, Moral Facts, and Social Pathology
- Chapter 10 Durkheim: A Science of Morality
- Chapter 11 Hegelian Social Ontology I: Objective Spirit
- Chapter 12 Hegelian Social Ontology II: The Living Good
- Chapter 13 Hegelian Social Pathology
- Chapter 14 Conclusion: On Social Ontology
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 11 - Hegelian Social Ontology I: Objective Spirit
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 October 2022
- Diagnosing Social Pathology
- Diagnosing Social Pathology
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Note on Citations
- Chapter 1 Can Societies Be Ill?
- Chapter 2 Society as Organism?
- Chapter 3 Marx: Pathologies of Capitalist Society
- Chapter 4 Marx: Labor in Spiritual Life and Social Pathology
- Chapter 5 Plato: Human Society as Organism
- Chapter 6 Rousseau: Human Society as Artificial
- Chapter 7 Durkheim’s Predecessors: Comte and Spencer
- Chapter 8 Durkheim: Functionalism
- Chapter 9 Durkheim: Solidarity, Moral Facts, and Social Pathology
- Chapter 10 Durkheim: A Science of Morality
- Chapter 11 Hegelian Social Ontology I: Objective Spirit
- Chapter 12 Hegelian Social Ontology II: The Living Good
- Chapter 13 Hegelian Social Pathology
- Chapter 14 Conclusion: On Social Ontology
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Chapter 11 reconstructs Hegel's conception of objective spirit, which specifies the kind of being, or reality, characteristic of the social world and distinguishes it from other domains of reality, such as nature and subjective spirit (or mind). It begins by examining what objective spirit means for Vincent Descombes and, to a lesser extent, for Durkheim and John Searle. Four claims associated with Hegel's account of objective spirit are distinguished and defended: 1) there is a form of mindedness that exists outside the consciousness of individual social members; 2) externally existing mind, embodied in social institutions, is metaphysically prior to the minds of the individuals who live within those institutions; 3) social reality depends on a collective acceptance of its institutions' normative rules; and 4) such rules constrain what social members do but also expand their practical possibilities and hence enrich their agency
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- Information
- Diagnosing Social PathologyRousseau, Hegel, Marx, and Durkheim, pp. 255 - 280Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022