Hegel was a product of German Idealism, which drew considerable inspiration from Rousseau and Kant and integrated it with modern popular desire for German unification leading to the rise of the nation states in Europe. Hegel like Fichte echoed the sentiment of idealism.
His assertion that the real will of the individual is not in negation but an affirmation with society meant that the rational will of the individual was expressed in the totality of the will of the state. The consciousness and moral power of the state subordinated the individual will. Through the dialectical logic of a spirit, the march of History moves from the imperfect to the perfect stage rationally removing all the obstacles of acquiring the distinction flanked by 'is' arid 'ought' as real became rational. Though the state is the mainly significant institution of this present ideal, the other two significant components were civil society and the family. Freedom played an significant role in Hegel but Hegelian version of freedom was associated with rationality unlike the thrust of British liberalism, which associated freedom with liberty and individuality.
LIFE AND TIMES
Born in 1770 in the princely state of Wurtemberg (Southern Germany), Hegel studied theology because his father wanted him to become a clergyman. In' 1793 lie got the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) from the University of Tubingon. Thereafter lie became a tutor at Bern and Frankfurt and worked as such for in relation to the seven years. In 1801 he got a job as lecturer at the University of Jena and later became a Professor. In 1816 he was appointed Professor of Philosophy at the University of Heidelberg and in 1818 he became Professor of Philosophy at the Berlin University. This location was held till then through the renowned German philosopher Fichte. Beside with this assignment Hegel also worked the official advisor of Emperor of Prussia (Germany). He held these two positions till his death in 1830.
Hegel wrote extensively on several characteristics of Political Philosophy. It was at Jena that he wrote his first major work Phenomenology of Mind, which was published in 1807. This was followed through publication of Science of Logic in 1811-12. After the publication of this work Hegel earned the recognition as an outstanding philosopher of Germany. His third work, Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences, which lie wrote throughout his stay at Heidelberg, made him well-known all in excess of Europe. It was at Berlin that lie wrote his major work in political theory, Philosophy of Right. He also delivered extremely scholarly and brilliant lectures, which were published through his son after his death under, the title, Philosophy of History. His writings and lectures and his several positions as Advisor of the emperor earned him international fame and won him several followers. He became not only the King of philosophers but also the philosopher of kings.
SPIRITUAL ANCESTRY
Hegel‘s writings illustrate that many philosophers and thinkers of the past immensely influenced him. Hegel borrowed his dialectical method from Socrates. So the ancestry of Hegelian doctrine of dialectical idealism can be traced back to these two great Greek thinkers of the past. One can also discern some power of Aristotle's teleology on Hegel. Teleology is a theory of knowledge just as to which a thing is understood in conditions of its end or purpose. For instance, the end or purpose of a watch is to tell time. So telling time is the true nature or the true end or purpose of watch. The great German rationalist Immanuel Kant's power is also discernible in Hegel‘s writings. The Hegelian thought that the state is founded on cause and the laws made through the state are the dictates of pure cause is quite similar to the Kantian location. Like Kant, Hegel did not provide to the individuals the right to resist or oppose the state or the laws made through it. There are even traces of Rousseau's power on Hegel. Like Rousseau's Common Will, the Hegelian Thought , Spirit or Cause is infallible. Again like Rousseau, Hegel provides primacy to public interest in excess of the private interest. You would recall that Rousseau had drawn a distinction flanked by the actual will and the real will. To put it in Hegelian conditions, Rousseau‘s actual will is that which promotes the self-interest of the individual while the real will is that which promotes the public interest. Because the common will is the condensation or the sum total of all the real wills (based on cause) it is infallible.
Hegel‘s philosophy was historicist in nature. Historicism is a doctrine, which is variously understood through dissimilar thinkers. In its mainly common sense it is rooted in the assumption that there are limits to scientific knowledge in relation to the human behaviors and achievements and such inadequate scientific knowledge cannot be used as a means for controlling the future course of events. Contrary to this, historicism is connected to ambitions for subjecting all human happenings to rational manage.
Power of Historical Events
In the previous part some of the major powers on Hegel have been spelled out; but Hegel was not influenced only through the great thinkers of past. Some major modern events also influenced him. Two events which exercised considerable power on Hegel were the French Revolution (1789) and the subjugation of Germany through Napoleon in the beginning of the 19th Century. French Revolution overthrew the old oppressive feudal order and projected the vision of a new society wedded to the values of liberty, equality and fraternity. 'The values of liberty and fraternity pal titularly influenced his writings. The subjugation of the German state through Napoleon disillusioned him and he set out to resolve the perennial political troubles of the states. The reconciliation that he advocated in his writings is unique and paradoxical in several compliments.
Before we take up an analysis of Hegel‘s political philosophy it is necessary for us to bear in mind that although he borrowed several of his thoughts from Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Kant and Rousseau, he used them to evolve his own philosophy. He assimilated their thoughts in his logical system. In other languages, the Hegelian political philosophy stands separately from each of them.
IDEALISM
In the history of political thoughts there are two major schools of thought in relation to the nature of reality — idealism and naturally, rationalism and empiricism. The question in relation to the that nature of reality is ontological; while the question in relation to the knowing it is epistemological just as to the Idealist school, of which Hegel is a major proponent, (the other one being Plato), true knowledge of every thing in the world — material and non material—is deduced from thought of the thing. In other languages, the thought of the thing, is more significant than the thing itself. So, what is real and permanent is the ―thought of a thing" not the thing as much. This is so because the physical world is constantly in a state of flux and change but the thought is permanent. The physical world is only a manifestation of the thought . For instance, the true knowledge of table or chair lies in comprehending the thought of table or chair. An actually existing table is a table in so distant as it has the features of table-hood. A carpenter is able to create a table because he has the thought of table in his mind and the table that he creates is only a manifestation or approximation of that thought . The conditions hot and cold are understood as thought . The knowledge of actually existing things is relative and hence imperfect. When you say that water in this glass is hot it is only a relative truth because as compared to boiling water it is cold but as compared to water in the refrigerator it is hot. So the real knowledge is to comprehend the thought of hot and cold.
Hegelian idealism is often referred to as Absolute Idealism because it gives us with a set of categories (hot and cold, pleasure and plain) in conditions of which all human experiences of the past and the present can be understood. There is another dimension of Hegelian idealism. This may be described Idealist Interpretation of History. Just as to this theory it is the thoughts that constitute the true motor of history. What provides momentum to history is the development of thoughts. All changes in society, economy, polity and civilization take lay because of development of thoughts. Hegel‘s Idealism which is often described Absolute Idealism sees a sure connection flanked by the subject and the substance. It is a connection flanked by the subject and the substance. It is a connection flanked by a knowing subject and the objective world, which is recognized, i.e. connection flanked by the mind and the world.
Dialectical Method
Hegel‘s political philosophies rest mainly on his dialectical method. As already pointed out Hegel borrowed his method from Socrates who is the first exponent of this method. Hegel has himself expressed his debt to Socrates for this method. The dialectic means to talk about . Socrates whispered that one can arrive at the truth only through constant questioning. It was the procedure of exposing contradictions through the method of discussion. Having taken a clue from Socrates Hegel argued that absolute Thought or the Spirit, in search of self-realization moves from Being to non-being to becoming. To put it in easy languages, an thought moves from a thesis to antithesis until a synthesis of the two is establish. Synthesis has in it elements of thesis as well as antithesis. In due course the synthesis itself acquires the status of a thesis and provides rise to its own antithesis. This procedure goes on. In practice, Hegel applied his dialectical method to the domain of thoughts. So, his method may be described as dialectical idealism. It means that every thought (thesis) provides rise to a counter thought (antithesis) and the original thought and counter thought (merge) to provide rise to a new thought (synthesis). This new thought , in due course, itself becomes a thesis and provides rise to its antithesis and the procedure goes on. Hegel argued that through the use of his dialectical method he has exposed the greatest formula in the history of philosophy. He maintained that the march of cause in history was a intricate dialectical procedure. It is a mechanism through which thought propels itself. Dialectical idealism was a logical tools for interpreting the history in its true perspective.
Use of Dialectical Method
Having stated his dialectical method Hegel argued that a phenomenon can be best understood just as to the law of dialectics, i.e. when contrasted with its opposite. Pleasure is best understood in opposition to pain, heat in opposition to cold, goodness in opposition to badness, justice in opposition to injustice and so on. Hegel has given many instances of thesis, antithesis and synthesis. The following instances given through him are note worthy and you should keep in mind them.
Family is the thesis, civil society is its antithesis and state is the synthesis.
Likewise, despotism is thesis, democracy is its antithesis and constitutional monarchy 'is the synthesis.
Inorganic world is the thesis, organic world is its antithesis and human beings are the synthesis.
Hegel whispered that the true nature of thing can be recognized only if its contradictions are also recognized. In this sense, his theory of dialects is rooted in contradiction or negation. He measured contradictions as the driving force of the whole procedure of development. This is the fundamental law of the cosmos as also of thought.
PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY
Hegel‘s philosophy of history is contained in the lectures that he delivered while he was at the Berlin University. He does not attach much importance to the material things. He views them merely as the cumulative result of development of absolute Thought . Absolute Thought is dynamic and ever evolving. It moves forward in search of self-realisation. This is termed through Hegel as unfolding of the cause. The whole universe is the result of this procedure of unfolding of Cause. In information, Hegel‘s philosophy of history is somewhat similar to the Christian theology, which sees history as a pattern of meaningful events which can be understood in conditions of cosmic design. It is unfolding of cause under God's guidance or as willed through God. The Absolute Thought moves forward in an evolutionary procedure. In this evolutionary procedure the absolute Thought or the spirit takes several shapes, discarding the earlier ones and getting newer ones. The first stage in this development is the physical or the inorganic world. At this initial stage the Absolute Thought (or Spirit) acquires the form of gross matter. The second stage in this procedure is the organic world: animals, plants etc. This stage is an improvement on the earlier stage. The third stage is the development of human beings. Each stage is more complicated than the previous stage. The development of human beings marks a qualitatively higher stage because the human beings are rational mediators capable of distinguishing flanked by good and bad. The fourth stage marks the development of family system, In addition to rational element it involves mutual cooperation and accommodation. The fifth stage marks the development of Civil Society. Here economic inter-dependence is the main characteristic in addition to mutual cooperation and accommodation. The last and highest stage witnesses the development of the state, which symbolizes a perfect moral order. Hegel argues that family symbolises unity; civil society symbolises particularity and the state symbolises universality. The unity of the family, particularity of the civil society is realised with the appearance of the state as the actuality of the universal order. Both the family and civil society are to some degree rational but only the state is perfectly rational and perfectly ethical. In short, the evolutionary procedure passes through the following stages and each successive stage is a separate improvement on the predecessor stages:
• Inorganic would
• Organic world
• Human beings
• Family
• Civil society
• State
It should be noted that with the help of the above argument Hegel tried to solve the vital problem in relation to the connection flanked by matter and Spirit. He did so through arguing that matter is only a manifestation of Spirit in its crude form. Matter is not only a negation of Spirit but also the conscious realization of Spirit.
The second significant dimension of Hegel‘s philosophy of history is the doctrine of historicism. It is hard to explain this doctrine. Broadly speaking, historicism is a doctrine, which holds that the whole course of history is predetermined course. The human intervention or human effort can be effective only if it falls in row with the dialectical direction of the world history. Like the stoic God history leads the wise man and drags the fool.
The third major dimension of Hegel‘s philosophy of history is the use of Aristotelian teleology. Just as to it every thing in the world is moving towards the realization of its end, its true nature. From the point of view of the human actors, history is a union of irony and tragedy; from the point of view of the Whole it is a cyclic. When we seem at Hegel‘s philosophy of history in its totality we can say that it is an effort to synthesize Kant‘s and Herder's philosophies of history. Kant advocated scientific understanding of history, while Herder emphasized the lay of feelings and speculation. In this sense Hegel‘s philosophy of history is speculative cause. Let us elaborate this point.
For filler understanding of thrust of Hegel‘s philosophy of history you necessity understand that there is philosophical as against empirical history. The historians of latter category insist on accurate delineation of the facts which is their paramount concern. The former (philosophic historians) on the other hand are not satisfied with mere narration of facts and attempt to give divination of the meaning and seem for the exhibition of cause's working in the sphere of history. They do not feel satisfied through mere reproduction of empirical facts and attempt to incorporate their knowledge of the Thought , the articulation of cause. Therefore they elevate empirical contents to the stage of necessary truth.
For Hegel the world history exhibits the development of the consciousness of freedom on the part of Spirit. Hegel actually applies his philosophy of history when he says that in the oriental world (China etc) there was despotism and slavery and freedom was confined only to the monarch. But in Greek and Roman civilizations although slavery was there, yet the citizens enjoyed freedom. In Europe particularly in Germany there is emphasis on liberty for all and infinite worth of each individual is recognized. The world history therefore consists of definite stages of progression — Oriental, Greek, Roman and Germanic. In short, Hegel‘s philosophy of history consists of two parts:
• The common pattern and
• Several stages in this common pattern.
Finally, Hegel‘s philosophy of history talks of doctrine of moving forces in historical change. He argues that Cause's great design can be accepted out with the help of human passions. Sure great men (like Caesar or Alexander) are chosen as instruments of destiny. Such men are necessary if the plot of history is to be accepted out. This amounts to saying that thoughts are significant but there necessity be will power to implement them.
THEORY OF STATE
The mainly seminal contribution of Hegel to Political Philosophy is his theory of state. Like Plato, Hegel is a great system builder. His theory of state is rooted in the axiom: "What is rational is real and what is real is rational‖. It means that whatever exists in the world is just as to Cause and whatever is just as to cause exists. Hegel‘s theory of state is based on the vital premise in relation to the gradual unfolding of Cause or Spirit or Absolute Thought through a dialectical procedure. Cause gets its perfect realization in the state. Therefore , the state is Cause personified. State is rational, state is real; so what is rational is real. Here, real does not only mean that which is empirical but that which is fundamental. In information, Hegel distinguishes flanked by real and that which merely exists. That which merely exists is only momentary and mere surface manifestation of underlying forces which alone are real. Therefore , Hegel sought to bridge the gap flanked by the rational and the real. The real is nothing but the objective manifestation of spirit.
This implies that for Hegel all states are rational in so distant as they symbolize the several states of unfolding of Cause. Through doing so he took a conservative location because it tantamounts to saying that whatever happens is manifestation of unfolding of Cause. No event ever occurs unless ordained through Cause. So every event takes lay just as to a rational plan. He measured the state as "March of God on Earth‖ or the ultimate embodiment of Cause.
State, for Hegel, is the highest manifestation of Cause because it emerges as a synthesis of family (thesis) and civil society (antithesis). Family fulfills man's biological needs —food, sex and love. It is the first manifestation of spirit but it cannot fulfill the higher or more intricate needs for which we require a civil society. While the vital characteristic of family is unity based on love the civil society is necessary for the fulfillment of his competitive self-interest and for the satisfaction of diverse human needs, particularly the economic needs which the family cannot fulfill. The civil society is organized on the foundation of individual's material needs, which are not wholly private and yet are primarily self-concerning. It is less selfish than the family. It is saved from disintegration because men begin to realize that their needs can be met only through recognizing the claims of others. Civil society educates the individual where he begins to see that he can get what he needs only through willing what other individuals require. It is not a complete organic unity. Such unity is realized only when the tension involved in the contradiction flanked by family and civil society is transcended in the final synthesis of the state. The civil society looks after the material needs of human beings and so, Hegel sees it as state in its embryonic form. The state looks after the universal interests of the whole society and it acquires an organic character.
Through method of summing up this intricate Hegelian theory of state we may say that first it has divine origin because the state is divinely ordained growth of absolute Thought or Cause. There can be no spiritual development beyond the state as there can be no physical development beyond man. It is the march of God on earth. Secondly, Hegel is statistic because the state in his philosophy is not a means to an end but an end in itself. The statedoes not exist for the individuals but the individuals exist for the state. Thirdly, for Hegel the whole (state) is greater than the parts (individuals) that constitute it. Their (individuals') importance is only due to the information that they are members of the state. Therefore , Hegel creates the individuals totally subordinate to the state. Only the state knows what is in individual's interest. State in that sense is infallible. It is also infallible because it is divine. Hegel argued that,, ―all the worth which the human being possesses—all spiritual reality—he possesses only through the State. For his spiritual reality consists in this, that his own essence—Cause—is objectively present to him, that it possesses objective immediate subsistence for him. The State is the Divine Thought as it exists on earth".
THEORY OF FREEDOM OF THE INDIVIDUAL
Hegel‘s theory of state leads us to another significant conclusion. Because only the state knows what is in individual‘s interest and because the state is always infallible and because the state is divine so the individuals have no rights outside the state or against the state because state itself is the fountain of rights. Freedom of the individual lies in the complete obedience of the laws of the state. It is only as an obedient citizen with the universal. In other languages, state is a super-organism in which no one has any individual preferences dissimilar from those of the superior element. Therefore , one aspect of Hegel‘s philosophy which is of greatest significance is the exaltation of the state and complete negation of the individual's rights and freedoms.
Real freedom of the individual can be realized only in the state. The only method for the individual to be free is to willingly obey the laws of the state.
In a subtle sense, Hegel‘s location on the question of connection flanked by state and individual is extremely secure to Rousseau's location. You will recall that Rousseau had argued that each individual has two wills— actual will which is selfish and the real will which is rational. Freedom in Rousseau's philosophy means subordination of actual wills to the real wills (the Common will). In the similar method in Hegel‘s philosophy the individual is free only if he identifies himself consciously with the laws of the state. Because the state for Hegel is infallible and because it can never be wrong so, if there is ever a disagreement flanked by individual and the state, the individual is always wrong and the state is always right.
It is also motivating to compare Hegel‘s location with the location of Hobbes on this (relation flanked by the individual and the state). Hegel maintains that individuals have no right to resist the state or disobey the commands of the state. To take an analogy—presently as parts of human body cannot revolt against the body in the similar method the individuals cannot revolt against the state. Given this location of Hegel we can say that the Hegelian state is like the Hobbesian Leviathan in new garb. In information, in Hegel the location of state vis-Ã -vis the individual is more exalted than in Hobbes. Hobbes at least grants to the individual the right to revolt against the state if the state fails to protect his life. The individuals in the Hobbesian social contract agreed to submit themselves to the state in the hope that it (state) will ensure safety of their life and property. If the state (or the sovereign) is unable to do so then the individuals have the inherent right to refuse to obey the sovereign. Though, Hegel does not grant any such right to the individual. This is so because the state for Hegel is the embodiment of cause and individuals are the products of the state. In some sense the connection flanked by state and individual Hegel is an organic connection, while in Hobbes it remnants a mechanical connection based on contract.
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