The+Philosophy+of+Right

=The Philosophy of Right (341-360)=

//“History is mind clothing itself with the form of events or the immediate actuality of nature.”//

Hegel constructs his philosophy based on the idea that world history is a manifestation of the “universal mind.” He states that world history is not determined by destiny (“mere might”); rather, it is the development of different movements of reason, or ‘the actualization of the human mind’. He states that the mind acts to make itself the object of its own consciousness. Once it does this, it can move onto a higher stage of apprehension. The goal of the mind is to achieve absolute knowledge of itself and "therefore freeing its consciousness from the form of natural immediacy and so coming to itself."

Although each person is individually formed by different life situations, they are all part of the ubiquitous world mind. Hegel states: “they are all the time the unconscious tools and organs of the world mind at work within them” (344). All people and actions are living instruments of the world mind. The immediate natural principles of a particular era represent a specific stage in the development of the world mind. Hegel thinks that human history is developing progressively, as humans use their reason to discover good and incorporate it into what they are.

The dominant nations control the world mind and are responsible for its development. Other nations are “without rights”, because their actions will have no impact on world history. Hegel would place more importance on the intellectual battles of The Enlightenment than the World Wars of the 20th century.

In section 349, Hegel gives his explanation on how a nation, or group of people, becomes a state, which is a sovereign institution recognized by other states. He says: //"The transition from a family, a horde, a clan, a multitude, etc, to political conditions is the realisation of the Idea in the form of a nation."// Basically, what he is trying to say, is that without an established law, or an established, rational constitution, its sovereignty will not be recongized by others. He also says that patriarchial conditions do not count as a constitution. Furthermore, given these considerations, he believes that civilized nations are justified in treating nations whose institutions lag behind them as barbarians. For example, a pastoral society would treat a hunter-gatherer society as barbaric, just as an agricultural society, which is higher up than pastoral, would treat the pastoral society as barbaric.

One can define history in terms of the four Aristotalian causes. The efficent cause of history (what makes history) is ideas and actions. Ideas develop from unintended consequences and actions supplement their development as passionate and lawful manifestations of such actions. The Material cause of history, the substance, is the state. Hegel believes that history happens inthe State. The Formal cause of history, or the appearance of history, is found in the Constitution and Law. The solidification of the efficent causes (ideas and actions) into the form of history is in its written statutes, which guide human action and thinking. Reason is final cause, the direction towards which drives history and towards which all history tends.

The aim of the mind is absolute knowledge of itself. Here are Hegel's four principles of formation of this self- consciousness and corresponding world-historical realms:


 * 1) ORIENTAL: the substantial mind (“the shape of the identity in which individuality is absorbed in its essence”)
 * 2) Arises out of patriarchy
 * 3) theocratic rule, caste system
 * 4) constitution/legislation = religion
 * 5) religious/moral commands= natural and positive law
 * 6) no individual personality (loses its right and perishes)
 * 7) GREEK: this substantial mind is endowed with knowledge (“mind is both the positive content and filling of mind and also the individual self-awareness which is the living form of mind”)
 * 8) personal individuality arises, although it is still not self-enclosed but kept in its ideal unity
 * 9) decisions are made based on a power that is still outside individual subjectivity and self/consciousness
 * 10) ROMAN: “the inward deepening of this individual self-awareness and knowledge until it reaches abstract universality and therefore infinite opposition to the objective world which in the same process has become mind-forsaken”
 * 11) extremes of private self-consciousness and abstract universality
 * 12) causes the clash of substantial intuition of an aristocracy and the principle of free personality in democracy
 * 13) eventually, both fall apart and we are left with universal misfortune and the destruction of ethical life
 * 14) individual are degraded to the level of private persons equal with one another and held together only by insatiable self-will
 * 15) GERMANTIC: “the conversion of this opposition so that mind receives in its inner life its truth and concrete essence, while in objectivity it is at home and reconciled with itself. The mind which has thus reverted to the substantiality with which it began is the mind which has returned out of the infinite opposition, and which consequentially engenders and knows this its truth as thought and as a world of actual laws”
 * 16) //IN ENGLISH//: mind rises out of its fallen situation and grasps the principle of the unity of the divine nature and the human;
 * 17) it reconciles the contradiction that objective truth and freedom appear within self-consciousness and subjectivity

He then discusses the two realms that are distinguished from one another and at the same time rooted in a single unity and

This is my interpretation: the “Idea” is the manifestation of the world mind. Once an idea is formed in the world mind, this idea has the right to manifest itself through people and historical events. The “hero” is the actor who concretely solidifies an “Idea” of the world mind by writing them down as a constitution and creating a state. The progression of the ideas of the world mind shapes history. I agree that Hegel is arguing for the idea itself to have a right not to be suppressed. One issue I am not clear on is how he distinguishes some ideas from others in his support of colonial ideals. How does Hegel purport to know that industrial societies have better ideas about life than pastoral societies? Further more, how would Hegel reconcile his statement that "world history is not the verdict of mere might" (Section 342) with the obvious ability of militarily dominant societies to crush the ideas of less powerful societies. It would be difficult to argue that the ancient civilizations of Africa and Central America did not have a significant amount of knowledge to share with the world. However, much of that knowledge was completely lost, rather than learned from, due to invading forces. In short I'm not sure Hegel adequately defends his assertions that ideas have an "absolute right" to exist. 2. //I am unclear about these two "realms". Can someone elaborate?
 * 1.** //I'm having trouble understanding Hegel's definition of "Idea" such as when he says in section 350, "It is the absolute right of the idea to step into existence in clear cut laws and objective institutions." Also what does he mean when he says, "This right is the right of the hero to found states"?//

3. Could Hegel hold all of his views and still defend colonialism?// //4. What does the mind making "itself the subject of its own conciousness" mean exactly? Does this mean trying to figure out why humans think the way they do, and thus is somewhat like figuring out human nature?// I took the statement to mean that we should consciously think about how are mind is thinking. I think Hegel wants us to see the benefits of the "world mind" and also to understand how the "world mind" works. He also praises the state for bringing the ideas of the "world mind" to fruition in Sections 361 and 362, among others. On your last question I did take it as understanding human nature as a function of reason rather than might.

//5.//