Hegel's
The Two Levels of Reality
Rational: mind, universal, objective, ethical,
essential, freedom
Natural: body, particular, subjective, inclination,
causation, accidental/contingent,
Hegel's Dialectic: World
History is a history of Rational Development
Thesis à Anti-Thesis à Synthesis, which becomes the next Thesis
Hegel's Theory of Marriage as an Ethical Relationship
1. Marriage as a
Natural Relation vs. Marriage as an Ethical Relationship, A
Spiritual Bond of
Key contrast: Objective/Universal vs.
subjective/particular.
Natural relations involve individuals in their particularity. Ethical relations involve individuals in an
objective, universal union. Mutual, whole-hearted surrender of individual personality.
2. Objective,
Universal Decision vs. the Subjective Inclinations of Two Particularized
Individuals
Hegel's extreme anti-individualism "what
rests on them [these individuals] may indeed be of infinite importance to them, but is of none whatever in itself."(757)
3. Hegel's Account of
the Essence of Marriage: paternalist,
monogamous, not with close relatives.
Contrast his universal, rational account of monogamy with the
contingent, empirical account.
Hegel's Theory of the State
as an
Ethical Idea
1. What is the ethical idea of the state? The state is the occasion for individual
human beings to become conscious of the universal and to live a universal life. This is true emancipation.
2. Emancipation = Rationality = To Will the Universal.
In this way, we transcend our
particular, empirical, individual, existence.
3. What is wrong with State of
Emancipation is a social
accomplishment. What is our supreme duty?
The effect of the French
Revolution on Hegel was to lead him to reject the democratic model of
individual emancipation.
4. Note that even Rousseau's General Will is too
subjective (i.e., particular, individualistic) for Hegel. Hegel seeks Objective Will (i.e. Objective
Rationality).
Emancipation = Objective
Rationality = Merging the individual mind in the Universal Mind.
Hegel's Invisible Hand Theory of History
1. World history is the "interpretation and
actualization of the universal mind."(828), not
"the verdict of mere might"(828).
It is a development of the
self-consciousness of a society of rational and free beings (understood as
social beings, not isolated individuals).
2. The "Invisible Hand": While "they are absorbed in their
mundane interests, they are all the time the unconscious tools and organs of
the world mind at work within them."(828-829)
3. Hegel's Teleological Theory of
Rightness/Legitimacy. The universal
world mind makes world-historical nations and world-historical actions right. Other nations have no rights.
4. The Four Stages: Oriental, Greek, Roman, and Germanic.