Hegel's Political Philosophy Lecture PDF

Hegel’s Political Philosophy Dr Tim Christiaens Introduction “If I were to say that the so-called philosophy of this fellow Hegel is a colossal piece of mystification which will yet provide posterity with an inexhaustible theme for laught...

Hegel’s Political Philosophy Dr Tim Christiaens Introduction “If I were to say that the so-called philosophy of this fellow Hegel is a colossal piece of mystification which will yet provide posterity with an inexhaustible theme for laughter at our times, […] I should be quite right.” – Arthur Schopenhauer (1840) “Goethe made German literature into world literature, and Hegel made German philosophy into world philosophy.” – Karl Löwith (1945) Overview 1) Who is Hegel? 2) Hegel’s politics: What is at stake? 3) Hegel on ethical life Who is Hegel? Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) University lecturer (Jena, Heidelberg, Berlin) Culmination of German idealism (Kant, Fichte, Schelling) … … and German romanticism (Schiller, Goethe, Hölderlin) Sets the terms for German and French philosophy until 21st century (Feuerbach, Marx, Kojève, Sartre, etc.) Who is Hegel? Who is Hegel? Philosophy as dialectics Not “thesis-antithesis-synthesis” Cf. Dialectics in Plato → from illusory Alienation/reconciliation understanding through aporia to anamnèsis Dialectics as Odyssey of the Spirit The work of negation and sublation (Aufhebung) Abstract idea Concrete objectification Who is Hegel? Example 1: writing a paper Who is Hegel? Example 2: absolute knowledge Philosophy (Begriff) Art Religion (Anschauung) (Vorstellung) Hegel’s politics: What is at stake? 1) Historical context Aftermath of Napoleon’s Battle for Jena (1806) Restauration of the Prussian monarchy (1807-1830s) Political struggle within Prussia Conservative insistence on absolute monarchy (Haller) Liberal reform movement (Stein, Hardenberg, Humboldt) Emergence of socialism in the Vormärz era (Heine, Young Hegelians) → Hegel: Constitutional monarchy Hegel’s politics: What is at stake? 2) What is freedom? A) Liberalism Freedom is negative liberty/freedom from interference Enlightenment ideal of individual self-determination … … but leads to social disintegration B) Communitarianism Individuals must be embedded in cultural traditions and community Romantic ideal of communitarian belonging … … but rejection of individual reason and self-determination in favour of collective duties Hegel’s politics: What is at stake? C) Hegel’s position Reconciliation of (a) individual self-determination and (b) communitarian belonging Project of building rational collective institutions Using (a) individual reason to improve (b) collective traditions and institutions Political philosophy as identifying the progressive potential in existing institutions Political action as enacting the progressive potential in existing institutions Freedom as autonomy Auto-nomos: freedom as self-legislation Not “doing whatever you like” but building institutions to which one voluntarily and rationally submits Hegel on ethical life Ethical life (Sittlichkeit) Abstract morality must objectify itself into a concrete social order Three components of the social order → rational progression of collective instutions State Civil Family society Hegel on ethical life 1) Family Embedding of the individual in a collective based on love Individual self-interest immediately subjected to the interest of the family … but lacks rational grounding and individual self- determination Hegel on ethical life 2) Civil society = The economy + civil associations Economic needs draw individuals out of the family into civil society Maximal pursuit of individual particularity on the free market Invisible hand of the market guidesindividual interests toward the general interest But … – (1) Individual self-interest alienated from the general interest – (2) Enormous economic inequalities emerge Response (1) The corporation (2) The police Civil society ultimately fails to deliver individual self-determination because it lacks rational collective institutions Hegel on ethical life 3) The state Reconciliation of immediate, emotional community (family) and individualist particularity (civil society) → Mediated community of citizens through rational collective institutions Individual self-determination = patriotic duty to the state The state and its laws are the expression of my own capacity for self-determination Not liberalism → individual freedom is not non-interference but subjection to a law above oneself Not conservatism → I accept the law not because it is there but because it is rational Hegel on ethical life Structure of the state 1) Legislature as estates assembly Land owners and farmers in the upper house, representatives of the corporations in the lower house No democratic elections 2) Executive Enacts the law Importance of the civil service as separate estate 3) Crown (= king) Not an absolute king (Hobbes) Constitutional monarchy → King embodies the unity of the state (objectification of the “abstract” state order) Hereditary monarchy → an elected king/president would represent voters’ interest and hence not objectify the unity of the state