The Philosophy of Right was Hegel's most detailed exposition of his political philosophy and rational justification of the modern state. Please Subscribe: tinyurl.com/y66geaf6 Twitter: / james_muldoon_ Facebook: / politicalphilosophy
A wonderful introduction to Hegel. Congratulations on showing Hegel so clearly and lucidly. Sometimes we are seduced by the malleable Hegelian forms and try to deliver it as it is to the learners. Nothing could be more disastrous. Let one have doubts, learn to read the original texts, and create her own perspective!
Excellent summary of a complex (but still vital) book. I disagree that Hegel simply lets the question of poverty/the "rabble" drop, for he does state in an addendum to para 244, "The important question of how poverty is to be abolished is one of the most disturbing problems which agitate modern society." Of course, Hegel was writing at the dawn of modern industrial society and died before the working class movement came on the scene, but I think it reasonable to infer that he thought a capitalist society could be reformed, a development which would also hinge on his conception of "ethical life".
I would say, complementing what you correctly said, that he at least consider it to be a theme other generations could deal more and better than him, thus mentioning the problem in the paragraph you mentioned. And we saw such thing happen with the advent of names like Marx, the Frankfurt movement, Losurdo, Fanon and some others.
You do a good job of pointing out the problem that is Hegelianism found its roots in the French Revolution. Hegel is certainly a villain and even greater villainy has been committed based upon his ideas.
@oshay1988 You may forget that the people of Rwanda took pleasure in cutting the arms off their neighbors and this was only 20 years ago. The fact that many parts of Africa were better under Colonialism (not all) has nothing to do with the fact that the minions of Hegel are responsible for numerous genocides in the 20th Century alone. To answer your question, I know a good bit.
His philosophy is the one that is the most against nowadays trend of Neoliberalism. His idea of Freedom is totally at odds with modern, very naive, idea of freedom.
@@gianpietrofarina Interested that you refer to the liberal notion of freedom as "naive" in comparison to the freedom realized by social institutions. In my view, if we are to analyze freedom in purely idealistic forms -- that is, only attributing their merit to their ideas, and not their pragmatic implementation -- then I would agree that freedom as actualized by the consensus of social institutions (for instance, through public education via the arm of the state) is preferable to the liberal notion of freedom. This being said, I would also say that if we look at what has furnished the most freedom (my definition of freedom: the absence of coercion by state officials or other individuals into one course of action; the ability to pursue one's own interests without inhibiting costs) I would say that competitive capitalism has produced the most opportunity and freedom to people, than bolshevik Russia, or any other state-implementation of the idea of freedom through institutionalization.
I would say that a big part of it is because he was quite a bad writer, and over complicated his ideas with poor writing but another big factor is because his philosophy directed produced Totalitarianism. He heavily influenced both the Communists and Fascists.
@@IndustrialMilitia what in his philosophy at all had anything to do with totalitarianism? you could argue he was a bad writer but i think that also has alot to do with the fact that many of the works published (many after his death) were not actually books intended by publication, but rather were lecture notes and outlines and some of which just from what his students took down.
@@divinuminfernum If we consider the two foundational Communist philosophers to be Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, both of these men were deeply influenced by the works of Hegel and this influence is extremely clear in their philosophies. And if we consider the two foundational Fascist philosophers to be Giovanni Gentile and Carl Schmitt, both of these men were also deeply influenced by Hegel and this influence if very explicit in their work, with Gentile being referred to as the most acclaimed neo-Hegelian in the history of philosophy, and Schmitt actually being kicked out of the Nazi Party for being a Hegelian, although he was still deeply loyal to it. These two men also coined the term Totalitarianism, totalitario for Gentile and totalstaat for Schmitt, the word "totalitarian" being an adaptation of the Hegel word "totality", quite literally the totality of the state. Hegel's "Elements of the Philosophy of Right" presents a Totalitarian State that all these men and their subsequent philosophies and political movements took great influence from, although the lineage is actually much more explicit with the Fascists than the Communists as Gentile was an Idealist, rather than Marx who was a materialist. Mao Zedong also wrote a bit about Hegelian dialectics. Hegel very much provided the metaphysics and political philosophy for Fascism while Georges Sorel provided the social philosophy. The link between Hegel and Totalitarianism is direct and explicit.
Marx drew some ideas from Hegel such as historical determinism and a theory of dialectic, but there were also important differences since Hegel affirmed the traditional family, free markets and private property, and the modern state which he viewed as an institution of "world historical importance." Marx and Engels viewed all these social institutions as temporary historical phenomena which would and should wither away after the workers' revolution.
As I understand it, Hegel thought humanity developed over the course of a dialectic of ideas. Marx thought the development revolved around a dialectic of economic disparity and class struggle. Like the other replier pointed out, he was totally a Hegelian (but more of a Marxist, obviously!)
