Philosophy of Right

G. W. F. Hegel, S. W. Dyde

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780486445632
• eBook ISBN: 9780486119045
• Topic: Philosophie
• Subtopic: Ethik & Moralphilosophie

Complete and unabridged, this edition of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's 1821 classic offers a comprehensive view of the philosopher's influential system. In the Philosophy of Right, Hegel applies his most important concept--the dialectics--to law, rights, morality, the family, economics, and the state.
The last of Hegel's works to be published in his lifetime, this volume combines moral and political philosophy to form a sociologic view dominated by the idea of the state. Hegel defines universal right as the synthesis between the thesis of an individual acting in accordance with the law and the occasional conflict of an antithetical desire to follow private convictions. The state, he declares, must permit individuals to satisfy both demands, thereby realizing social harmony and prosperity--the perfect synthesis. Further, Hegel renounces his formerly favorable assessment of the French Revolution and rejects the republican form of government, suggesting instead an idealized form of a constitutional monarchy, in which ultimate power rests with the sovereign.

THIRD PART
THE ETHICAL SYSTEM

142. The ethical system is the idea of freedom. It is the living good, which has in self-consciousness its knowing and willing, and through the action of self-consciousness its actuality. Self-consciousness, on the other hand, finds in the ethical system its absolute basis and motive. The ethical system is thus the conception of freedom developed into a present world, and also into the nature of self-consciousness.

143. The conception of the will, when united with the realization of the will, or the particular will, is knowing. Hence arises the consciousness of the distinction between these two phases of the idea. But the consciousness is now present in such a way that each phase is separately the totality of the idea, and has the idea as its content and foundation.

144. The objective ethical principle which takes the place of the abstract good is in its substance concrete through the presence in it of subjectivity as its infinite form. Hence it makes differences which are within itself, and therefore are due to the conception. By means of these differences, it obtains a sure content, which is independent and necessary, and reaches a standing ground raised above subjective opinion and liking. This content is the self-originated and self-referring laws and regulations.

Addition.—In the ethical principle as a whole occur both the objective and the subjective elements; but of this principle each is only a form. Here the good is substance, or the filling of the objective with subjectivity. If we contemplate the social order from the objective standpoint, we can say that man, as ethical, is unconscious of himself. In this sense Antigone proclaims that no one knows whence the laws come; they are everlasting, that is, they exist absolutely, and flow from the nature of things. None the less has this substantive existence a consciousness also, which, however, is only one element of the whole.

145. The ethical material is rational, because it is the system of these phases of the idea. Thus freedom, the absolute will, the objective, and the circle of necessity, are all one principle, whose elements are the ethical forces. They rule the lives of individuals, and in individuals as their modes have their shape, manifestation, and actuality.

Addition.—Since the phases of the ethical system are the conception of freedom, they are the substance or universal essence of individuals. In relation to it, individuals are merely accidental. Whether the individual exists or not is a matter of indifference to the objective ethical order, which alone is steadfast. It is the power by which the life of individuals is ruled. It has been represented by nations as eternal justice, or as deities who are absolute, in contrast with whom the striving of individuals is an empty game, like the tossing of the sea.

146. (β) This ethical reality in its actual self-consciousness knows itself, and is therefore an object of knowledge. It, with its laws and forces, has for the subject a real existence, and is in the fullest sense self-dependent. It has an absolute authority or force, infinitely more sure than that of natural objects.

Note.—The sun, moon, mountains, rivers, and all objects of nature doubtless exist. They not only have for consciousness the authority of existence in general, but have also a particular nature. This nature consciousness regards as valid, and in its varied relation and commerce with objects and their use comports itself accordingly. But the authority of the social laws is infinitely higher, because natural things represent reason only in a quite external and particular way, and hide it under the guise of contingency.

147. On the other hand, the various social forces are not something foreign to the subject. His spirit bears witness to them as to his own being. In them he feels that he is himself, and in them, too, he lives as in an element indistinguishable from himself. This relation is more direct and intuitive than even faith or trust.

Note.—Faith and trust belong to the beginning of reflection, presupposing picture thought and such discernment as is implied in the judgment that to believe in a heathen religion is different from being a heathen. The relation, or rather identity without relation, in which the ethical principle is the actual life of self-consciousness, can indeed be transformed into a relation of faith and conviction. By further reflection, also, it may pass into an insight based on reasons, which originate in some particular end, interest, or regard, in fear or hope, or in historical presuppositions. But the adequate knowledge of these belongs to the conception arrived at through thought.

148. The individual may distinguish himself from these substantive ethical factors, regarding himself as subjective, as of himself undetermined, or as determined to some particular course of action. He stands to them as to his substantive reality, and they are duties binding upon his will.

Note.—The ethical theory of duties in their objective character is not comprised under the empty principle of moral subjectivity, in which, indeed, nothing is determined (§134), but is rightly taken up in the third part of our work, in which is found a systematic development of the sphere of ethical necessity. In this present method of treatment, as distinguished from a theory of duties, the ethical factors are deduced as necessary relations. It is, then, needless to add, with regard to each of them, the remark that it is thus for men a duty. A theory of duties, so far as it is not a philosophic science, simply takes its material out of the relations at hand, and shows how it is connected with personal ideas, with widely prevalent principles, and thoughts, with ends, impulses, and experiences. It may also adduce as reasons the consequences, which arise when each duty is referred to other ethical relations, as well as to general well-being and common opinion. But a theory of duties, which keeps to the logical settlement of its own inherent material, must be the development of the relations, which are made necessary through the idea of freedom, and are hence in their entire context actual. This is found only in the state.

149. A duty or obligation appears as a limitation merely of undetermined subjectivity and abstract freedom, or of the impulse of the natural will, or of the moral will which fixes upon its undetermined good capriciously. But in point of fact the individual finds in duty liberation. He is freed from subjection to mere natural impulse; he is freed from the dependence which he as subjective and particular felt towards moral permission and command; he is freed, also, from that indefinite subjectivity, which does not issue in the objective realization implied in action, but remains wrapped up in its own unreality. In duty the individual freely enters upon a liberty that is substantive.

Addition.—Duty limits only the caprice of subjectivity, and comes into collision only with abstract good, with which subjectivity is so firmly allied. When men say we will to be free, they have in mind simply that abstract liberty, of which every definite organization in the state is regarded as a limitation. But duty is not a limitation of freedom, but only of the abstraction of freedom, that is to say, of servitude. In duty we reach the real essence, and gain positive freedom.

150. The ethical, in so far as it is reflected simply in the natural character of the individual, is virtue. When it contains nothing more than conformity to the duties of the sphere to which the individual belongs, it is integrity.

Note.—What a man ought to do, or what duties he should fulfil in order to be virtuous, is in an ethical community not hard to say. He has to do nothing except what is presented, expressed and recognized in his established relations. Integrity is the universal trait, which should be found in his character, partly on legal, partly on ethical grounds. But from the standpoint of morals a man often looks upon integrity both for himself and others as secondary and unessential. The longing to be unique and peculiar is not satisfied with what is absolute and universal, but only with some situation that is exceptional.

The name “virtue” may quite as well be applied to the different aspects of integrity, because they, too, although they contain nothing belonging exclusively to the individual in contrast with others, are yet his possession. But discourse about the virtues easily passes into mere declamation, since its subject matter is abstract and indefinite, and its reasons and declarations are directed to the individual’s caprice and subjective inclination. In any present ethical circumstance, whose relations are fully developed and actualized, virtue in the strict sense has place and reality only when these relations come into collision. But genuine collisions are rare, although moral reflection can, on the slightest provocation, create them. It can also provide itself with the consciousness that, in order to fulfil its special mission, it must make sacrifices. Hence, in undeveloped conditions of social life virtue as such occurs more frequently, because ethical principles and the realization of them are more a matter of private liking, belonging indeed to the nature of peculiarly gifted individuals. Thus, the ancients have attributed virtue in a special way to Hercules. So, too, in the ancient states, where ethical principles had not expanded into a system of free self-dependent development and objectivity, ethical defects had to be compensated for by the genius of the private individual. Thus the theory of the virtues, so far as it differs from a mere theory of duties, embraces the special features of character due to natural endowments, and thus becomes a spiritual history of the natural in man.

Since the virtues are the ethical reality applied to the particular, and are on this subjective side indefinite, there arises, in order to make them definite, a quantitative distinction of more and less. Hence the consideration of the virtues calls up the opposing vices as defects. Thus Aristotle defines a particular virtue, when rightly understood, as the mean between too much and too little.

The content, which receives the form of duties and also of virtues, is the same as that which has the form of appetites (§19, note). Besides, they all have the same content as their basis. But because the content of the appetites still belongs to unformed will and natural perception, and is not developed to an ethical order, the only object which they have in common with the content of duties and virtues is abstract. Since it in itself is indeterminate, it does not contain for the appetites the limits of good and evil. Thus appetites, if we consider their positive side, are good, if their negative side evil (§18).

Addition. If a man realizes this or that social project, he is not at once virtuous, though such, indeed, he is, when this way of behaving is a fixed element of his character. Virtue is not wholly objective; it is rather ethical virtuosity. To-day we do not speak of virtue as formerly, for the reason that ethical principles are not now so much a feature of a particular individual. The French speak most of virtue, because amongst them the individual is more his own peculiar property, and acts according to the dictates of nature. The Germans, on the other hand, are more reflective, and amongst them the same content attains the form of universality.

151. The ethical, when simply identical with the reality of individuals, appears as a generally adopted mode of action, or an observance. This is the custom, which as a second nature has been substituted for the original and merely natural will, and has become the very soul, meaning, and reality of one’s daily life. It is the living spirit actualized as a world; by this actualization does the substance of spirit exist as spirit.

Addition.—As nature has its laws, as the animals, trees, the sun, fulfil their law, so observance belongs to the spirit of freedom. What right and morality are not as yet, the ethical principle is, namely, spirit. The particularity involved is not yet that of the conception, but only of the natural will. So, too, from the standpoint of morality, self-consciousness is not yet spiritual consciousness. It is occupied simply with the value of the subject in himself; the subject, who frames himself according to the good and against evil, has yet the form of caprice. But, here at the ethical point of view, will is the will of spirit, and has a correspondingly substantive content. Pedagogy is the art of making men ethical. It looks upon man as natural, and points out the way in which he is to be born again. His first nature must be converted into a second spiritual nature, in such a manner that the spiritual becomes in him a habit. In the spiritual disposition the opposition of the natural and subjective will disappears, and the struggle of the subject ceases. To this extent habit belongs to ethics. It belongs also to philosophic thought, which demands that the mind should be armed against sallies of caprice, rout and overcome them, in order that rational thought may have free course. It is true, on the other hand, that mere habit causes death, which ensues when one gets thoroughly used to life, and has become physically and mentally dulled. Then the opposition due to subjective consciousness and spiritual activity has disappeared. Man is active only in so far as he has not attained something which he desires to effect. When this is fully accomplished, activity and vitality vanish, and the lack of interest, which then pervades him, is mental or physical death.

152. Substantive ethical reality attains its right, and this right receives its due, when the individual in his private will and conscience drops his self-assertion and antagonism to the ethical. His character, moulded by ethical principles, takes as its motive the unmoved universal, which is open on all its sides to actual rationality. He recognizes that his worth and the stability of his private ends are grounded upon the universal, and derive their reality from it. Subjectivity is the absolute form and the existing actuality of the substance. The difference between the subject and substance, as the object, end, and power of the subject, forthwith vanishes, like the difference between form and matter.

Note.—Subjectivity, which is the foundation for the real existence of the conception of freedom (§106), is at the moral standpoint still distinguished from the conception. In ethics it is adequate to the conception, whose existence it is.

153. In that individuals belong to the ethical and social fabric they have a right to determine themselves subjectively and freely. Assurance of their freedom has its truth in the objectivity of ethical observance, in which they realize their own peculiar being and inner universality (§147).

Note.—To a father seeking the best way to bring up his son, a Pythagorean, or some other thinker, replied, “Make him a citizen of a state which has good laws.”

Addition.—The attempts of speculative educators to withdraw people from their present social life and bring them up in the country, a proposal made by Rousseau in “Emile,” have been vain, because no one can succeed in alienating man from the laws of the world. Although the education of young men must take place in solitude, we cannot believe that the odour of the world of spirits does not in the end penetrate their seclusion, or that the power of the spirit of the world is too feeble to take possession of even the remotest corner. Only when the individual is a citizen of a good state, does he receive his right.

154. The right of individuals to their particularity is contained in the concrete ethical order, because it is in particularity that the social principle finds a visible outer manifestation.

155. Right and duty coincide in the identity of the universal and the particular wills. By virtue of the ethical fabric man has rights, so far as he has duties, and duties so far as he has rights. In abstract right, on the contrary, I have the right and another person the corresponding duty; and in morals I resolve to consider as an objective duty only the right of my own knowledge and will and of my own well-being.

Addition.—The slave can have no duties, but only the free man. If all rights were on one side and all duties on the other, the whole would be broken up. Identity is the only principle to which we must now adhere.

156. The ethical substance, as the union of self-consciousness with its conception, is the actual spirit of a family and a nation.

Addition.—The ethical framework is not abstract like the good, but in a special sense real. Spirit has actuality, and the accidents or modes of this actuality are individuals. Hence as to the ethical there are only two possible views. Either we start from the substantive social system, or we proceed atomically and work up from a basis of individuality. This latter method, because it leads to mere juxtaposition, is void of spirit, since mind or spirit is not something individual, but the unity of individual and universal.

157. The conception of this idea exists only as spirit, as active selfknowledge and reality, since it objectifies itself by passing through the form of its elements. Hence it is,

A. The direct or natural ethical spirit, the family. This reality, losing its unity, passes over into dismemberment, and assumes the nature of the relative. It thus becomes

B. The civic community, an association of members or independent individuals in a formal universality. Such an association is occasioned by needs, and is preserved by the law, which secures one’s person and property, and by an external system for private and common interests.

C. This external state goes back to, and finds its central principle in, the end and actuality of the substantive universal, and of the public life dedicated to the maintenance of the universal. This is the state-constitution.

FIRST SECTION
The Family

158. The family is the direct substantive reality of spirit. The unity of the family is one of feeling, the feeling of love. The true disposition here is that which esteems the unity as absolutely essential, and within it places the consciousness of oneself as an individuality. Hence, in the family we are not independent persons but members.

Addition.—Love is in general the consciousness of the unity of myself with another. I am not separate and isolated, but win my self-consciousness only by renouncing my independent existence, and by knowing myself as unity of myself with another and of another with me. But love is feeling, that is to say, the ethical in the form of the natural. It has no longer a place in the state, where one knows the unity as law, where, too, the content must be rational, and I must know it. The first element in love is that I will to be no longer an independent self-sufficing person, and that, if I were such a person, I should feel myself lacking and incomplete. The second element is that I gain myself in another person, in whom I am recognized, as he again is in me. Hence love is the most tremendous contradiction, incapable of being solved by the understanding. Nothing is more obstinate than this scrupulosity of self-consciousness, which, though negated, I yet insist upon as something positive. Love is both the source and solution of this contradiction. As a solution it is an ethical union.

159. A right, which comes to the individual by reason of the family and constitutes his life in it, does not appear in the form of a right, that is, the abstract element of a definite individuality, until the family is dissolved. Then those, who should be members, become in feeling and reality self-dependent persons. What was theirs by right of their position in the f...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Translator’s Preface
• Author’s Preface
• Introduction
• FIRST PART: ABSTRACT RIGHT
• SECOND PART: MORALITY
• THIRD PART: THE ETHICAL SYSTEM
• INDEX OF WORDS
• INDEX OF SUBJECTS