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Hegel's Discovery of History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Steven B. Smith
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Extract

Hegel's philosophy of history is conventionally regarded as a part of his mature “system of science.” And so it is. What is less frequently understood, however, is that this philosophy grew out of or can at least be understood as an attempt to come to terms with a crisis in the tradition of modern natural right.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 45 , Issue 2 , April 1983 , pp. 163 - 187
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1983

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References

1 Hegel's, systematic treatment of modern natural right can be found in his Natural Law, trans. Knox, T. M. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1975)Google Scholar. For some interesting comments on this problem see Riedel, Manfred, “Hegels Kritik des Naturrechts,” Studien zu Hegels Rechtsphilosophie (Frankfurt, 1969), pp. 42–74.Google Scholar

2 Haldane, G. W. F., Lectures on the History of Philosophy, trans. Haldane, E. S. and Simpson, Frances H. (London, 1955), 3: 316.Google Scholar

3 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, The First and Second Discourses, trans. Roger, D. and Masters, Judith R. (New York, 1964), pp. 113–114, 168.Google Scholar

4 Hegel, G. W. F., The Philosophy of Right, trans. Knox, T. M. (Oxford, 1946), para. 258.Google Scholar

5 Kant, Immanuel, The Critique of Practical Reason, trans. Beck, Lewis White (Indianapolis, 1956), bk. 1, sec. 5.Google Scholar

6 Hobbes, Thomas, Leviathan, ed. Oakeshott, Michael (New York, 1962), p. 54.Google Scholar

7 This view of Kant as an “empty formalist” (Hegel) has recently been rebutted by Riley, Patrick, Kant's Political Philosophy (Totowa, New Jersey, 1983)Google Scholar. See also Goldmann, Lucien, Kant, trans. Black, Robin (London, 1971), p. 176.Google Scholar

8 For Kant's, acceptance of the principles of the liberal Rechtsstaat see The Metaphysical Elements of Justice (Rechtslehre), trans. Ladd, John (Indianapolis, 1965), part 3.Google Scholar

9 Hegel, Philosophy of Right, para. 4 and Addition.

10 Plant, Raymond, Hegel (London, 1973)Google Scholar; See also Schmidt, James, “A Paideia for the ‘Bürger als Bourgeois’: The Concept of Civil Society in Hegel's Political Thought,” History of Political Thought, no. 3 (Winter 1981).Google Scholar

11 Hegel, G. W. F., Hegels theologische Jugendschriften, ed. Nohl, H. (Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1907), p. 48Google Scholar (henceforth cited as HTJ). A partial translation of these writings by Knox, T. M. can be found under the title Early Theological Writings (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1971) (henceforth cited as ETW)Google Scholar. Since Knox retains Nohl's pagination but excludes a great deal of the material contained within the latter, I shall cite both editions where possible.

12 HTJ, p. 153; ETW, p. 68.

13 These represent, of course, the two halves of Kant's Metaphysics of Morals.

14 HTJ, p. 6.

15 Ibid., p. 7.

16 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, Emile or On Education, trans. Bloom, Allan (New York: Basic Books Inc., 1979), bk. 4Google Scholar. See also Hyppolite, Jean, Introduction à la philosophic de l'histoire de Hegel (Paris, 1948), p. 18.Google Scholar

17 Henrich, Dieter, “Leutwein über Hegel. Ein Dokument zu Hegels Biographie,” Hegel-Studien, 3 (1965), 39–77.Google Scholar

18 Rousseau, First Discourse, p. 64.

19 HTJ, p. 12.

20 Ibid, pp. 12–13.

21 On “pathological” love see Kant, Critique of Practical Reason, bk. 1, chap. 3.

22 HTJ, p. 18.

23 Ibid., p. 8.

24 Ibid., p. 27.

25 Ibid.

26 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, On the Social Contract, trans. Masters, Judith R. (New York: Saint Martin's Press, 1978), bk. 4, chap. 8.Google Scholar

27 HTJ, p. 27.

28 Montesquieu, L'Esprit des lois, bk. 19, chaps. 4–5.

29 For an interesting comparison between Montesquieu and Hegel see Planty-Bonjour, Guy, “L'Esprit générale d'une nation selon Montesquieu et le ‘Volksgeist’ hégélienne,” Hegel et le siecle des lumieres, ed. D'Hondt, Jacques (Paris, 1974), pp. 7–24.Google Scholar

30 Montesquieu, “Défense de L'Esprit des Lois” (First Part). For the suggestion that Montesquieu is really concealing his Hobbesian intent see Pangle, Thomas, Montesquieu's Philosophy of Liberalism (Chicago, 1973), pp. 20–47.Google Scholar

31 HTJ, p. 27.

32 Aristotle Politics 1253a; Physics 261a.

33 See Strauss, Leo, Natural Right and History (Chicago, 1953), p. 5.Google Scholar

34 Hegel, G. W. F., The Phenomenology of Mind, trans. Baille, J. B. (London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1971), p. 94.Google Scholar

35 Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics, bk. 4, chap. 5; bk. 10, chap. 9. For an interesting discussion of this point see Habermas, Jürgen, “The Classical Doctrine of Politics in Relation to Social Philosophy,” Theory and Practice, trans. Viertel, John (Boston, 1973), pp. 41–81.Google Scholar

36 Hegel, G. W. F., Briefs von und an Hegel, ed. Hoffmeister, J. (Hamburg: Felix Meiner, 1952–1954), 1: 23.Google Scholar

37 Ibid., 1: 24.

38 Schelling, F. W. J., Werke, ed. Schröter, Manfred (Munich: Beck, 1927), 1: 73–168.Google Scholar

39 Hegel, Briefe, 1: 22. See also Schelling, Werke, 1: 101: “Der Anfang und das Ende aller Philosophie ist—Freiheit!”

40 Hegel, G. W. F., Werke in zwanzig Bänden, ed. Moldenhauer, Eva and Michel, Karl Markus (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1971), 1: 234–235.Google Scholar

41 While it is generally believed that this fragment was originally written by Schelling and then sent to Hegel who copied it down in his own hand, this has been recently challenged by critics who argue that it was an original work by Hegel; see in particular Harris, H. S., Hegel's Development: Toward the Sunlight, 1770–1801 (Oxford, 1972), pp. 249–257Google Scholar; Pöggeler, Otto, “Hegel der Verfasser des ältesten Systemprogramms des deutschen Idealismus,” Hegel-Studien, 4 (1969), 17–32Google Scholar. Marcuse, Herbert, Reason and Revolution: Hegel and the Rise of Social Theory (Boston, 1954), pp. 11–12Google Scholar also seems to think that the “Systemprogram” was an original piece by Hegel, although no evidence is adduced for this.

42 HTJ, pp. 159–239; ETW, pp. 67–167.

43 Lukács, Georg, The Young Hegel, trans. Livingstone, Rodney (London, 1975), p. 16.Google Scholar

44 HTJ, p. 233.

45 Ibid., pp. 75, 89.

46 HTJ, p. 221; ETW, p. 153.

47 HTJ, p. 220; ETW, p. 152.

48 See Colletti, Lucio, “The Idea of ‘Bourgeois-Christian’ Society,” Marxism and Hegel, trans. Garner, Lawrence (London, 1973), pp. 249–283.Google Scholar

49 HTJ, pp. 221–22; ETW, pp. 154–55.

50 HTJ, p. 223; ETW, pp. 156–57.

51 Rousseau, First Discourse, p. 59.

52 Rousseau, Social Contract, bk. 1, chap. 6.

53 HTJ, pp. 191–93; ETW, pp. 117–20.

54 Hegel, Phenomenology of Mind, pp. 501–506.

55 Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, chap. 26.

56 HTJ, p. 215; ETW, p. 146.

57 Hegel, G. W. F., The German Constitution in Political Writings, trans. Knox, T. M. and ed. Pelczynski, Z. A. (Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1964), pp. 145, 219, 245Google Scholar. See also Jenaer Realphilosophie: Vorlesungmanuskripte zur Philosophic der Natur und des Geistes von 1805–1806, ed. Hoffmeister, J. (Hamburg: Felix Meiner, 1969), p. 246Google Scholar. Avineri, Shlomo, Hegel's Theory of the Modem State (Cambridge, 1972), pp. 60–61 has some pertinent remarks on this point.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

58 That Hegel's philosophy is in accordance with French Jacobinism has been argued by Ritter, Joachim, Hegel und die französische Revolution (Koln and Opladen, 1957).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

59 HTJ, pp. 243–342; ETW, pp. 182–301.

60 Knox, T. M., “Hegel's Attitude to Kant's Ethics,” Kant-Studien, 49 (1957–1958), 72Google Scholar. For further evidence of a break in Hegel's thought see his letter to Nanette Endel, 2 July 1797, Briefe, 1: 53; and also his letter to Windischmann, 27 May 1810, Briefe, 1: 102. For a careful analysis of this “crisis” see Harris, Hegel's Development, pp. 258–70; and Luk´cs, Young Hegel, pp. 101–105.

61 Hegel, Philosophy of Right, pp. 12–13.

62 HTJ, p. 264; ETW, p. 209.

63 HTJ, p. 261; ETW, p. 205.

64 For some interesting remarks on this theme see Kelly, G. A., “Notes on Hegel's ‘Lordship and Bondage,’ ” The Review of Metaphysics (06 1966), pp. 780–802.Google Scholar

65 HTJ, pp. 265–66; ETW, p. 211.

66 HTJ, p. 266; ETW, p. 212.

67 HTJ, p. 267; ETW, p. 213.

68 HTJ, p. 274; ETW, p. 222.

69 HTJ, p. 266; ETW, p. 212.

70 HTJ, pp. 328–29; ETW, pp. 284–87.

71 HTJ, pp. 341–42; ETW, p. 301.

72 Hegel, Phenomenology of Mind, pp. 599–610.

73 Letter to Schelling, 11 November 1800, Briefe, 1: 59.