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((Short description|Philosophical work by G. W. F. Hegel))
((italic title))
((Refimprove|date=September 2009))
[[File:Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts.jpg|right|thumb|Title page of the 1821 original work.]]
((Hegelianism))
'''''Elements of the Philosophy of Right''''' (((lang-de|Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts))) is a work by [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]] published in 1820,<ref>Christian Topp, ''Philosophie als Wissenschaft'' ((in lang|de)), Berlin: De Gruyter, 1982, p. xx.</ref> though the book's original title page dates it to 1821. Hegel's most mature statement of his [[legal]], [[moral]], [[social]] and [[political]] [[philosophy]], it is an expansion upon concepts only briefly dealt with in the ''[[Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences]]'', published in 1817 (and again in 1827 and 1830). [[Law]] provides for Hegel the cornerstone of the modern state. As such, he criticized [[Karl Ludwig von Haller]]'s ''The Restoration of the Science of the State'', in which the latter claimed that law was superficial, because [[natural law]] and the "right of the most powerful" was sufficient. The absence of law characterized for Hegel [[despotism]], whether [[Absolutism (European history)|absolutist]] or [[ochlocracy|ochlocracist]].

==Summary==
The ''Philosophy of Right'' (as it is usually called) begins with a discussion of the concept of the [[free will]] and argues that the free will can only realize itself in the complicated social context of [[property right]]s and relations, [[contract]]s, moral commitments, [[family]] life, the [[Economics|economy]], the legal system, and the [[polity]]. A person is not truly free, in other words, unless they are a participant in all of these different aspects of the life of the state.

The bulk of the book is devoted to discussing Hegel's three spheres or versions of 'right,' each one larger than the preceding ones and encompassing them. The first sphere is ''abstract right'' (''Recht''), in which Hegel discusses the idea of 'non-interference' as a way of respecting others. He deems this insufficient and moves onto the second sphere, ''[[morality]]'' (''Moralität''). Under this, Hegel proposes that humans reflect their own subjectivity of others in order to respect them. The third sphere, ''ethical life'' (''[[Sittlichkeit]]''), is Hegel's integration of individual subjective feelings and universal notions of right. Under ethical life, Hegel then launches into a lengthy discussion about family, civil society, and the state.

Hegel also argues that the state itself is subsumed under the higher totality of world history, in which individual states arise, conflict with each other, and eventually fall. The course of history is apparently toward the ever-increasing actualization of [[Political freedom|freedom]]; each successive historical epoch corrects certain failures of the earlier ones. At the end of his ''[[Lectures on the Philosophy of History]]'', Hegel leaves open the possibility that history has yet to accomplish certain tasks related to the inner organization of the state.

== Reception ==
((Conservatism in Germany|Works))
There were a number of issues that arose during the translation of the text. Most notably the phrase that is contained in the addition to §258, which was initially translated as "The state is the march of God through the world" as well as being translated thus: "The existence of the state is the presence of God upon the earth". From these early translations came the criticism that Hegel justifies [[authoritarianism|authoritarian]] or even [[totalitarianism|totalitarian]] forms of government: [[Giovanni Gentile]], whose thought had a strong influence on Mussolini, bases his Hegelian revival on this point. However, [[Walter Kaufmann (philosopher)|Walter Kaufmann]] argues that the correct translation reads as follows: "It is the way of God in the world, that there should be a state".<ref>Muller, Jerry Z. (2002). ''The Mind and the Market: Capitalism in Western Thought''. New York: A. Knopf. p. 430.</ref> This suggests that the state, rather than being godly, is part of the divine strategy, not a mere product of human endeavor. Kaufmann claims that Hegel's original meaning of the sentence is not a ''carte blanche'' for state dominance and brutality but merely a reference to the state's importance as part of the process of history.

The preface to the ''Philosophy of Right'' contains considerable criticism of the philosophy of [[Jakob Friedrich Fries]], who had been a critic of Hegel's prior work. Included in this is a suggestion that it is justifiable for the state to censor the writings of philosophers like Fries and welcoming Fries' loss of his academic position following Fries' participation in the [[Wartburg Festival]]. The inclusion of this passage has led to scholarly debate as to the reason for Hegel's advocacy of the kind of censorship the Prussian state had introduced following the murder of [[August von Kotzebue]] in the form of the [[Carlsbad Decrees]]. Hegel scholars have suggested that the inclusion of these passages was done to satisfy the censors.<ref>((cite book|last1=Knowles|first1=Dudley|title=Hegel and the philosophy of right|url=https://archive.org/details/routledgephiloso00know|url-access=limited|date=2002|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=0415165784|pages=[https://archive.org/details/routledgephiloso00know/page/n25 7]–9|edition=Transferred to digital print.))</ref> [[T.M. Knox]] argued that, while clearly designed to curry favour with the censors and written well after completion of the work proper, the Preface's condemnation of Fries was "nothing new", that there was no betrayal of his support for the [[Wartburg Festival]] principles, rather a mere denunciation of method, while condemnation of [[Karl Ludwig von Haller]] (whose work had been burned at Wartburg) remained undisturbed in the body of the work.<ref name="Stewart1996">((cite book|author=T. M. Knox|author-link=T.M. Knox|editor=Jon Stewart|title=Hegel Myths and Legends|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vHp4HltpEO4C&pg=PA73|date=1996|publisher=Northwestern University Press|isbn=978-0-8101-1301-5|pages=70–81|chapter=Hegel and Prussianism))</ref> [[Stephen Houlgate]] wrote in The Hegel Reader, which he edited, that the work is now "recognized as one of the greatest works of social and political philosophy ever written."<ref>((cite book |author1=Houlgate, Stephen |author2=Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich |title=The Hegel Reader |url=https://archive.org/details/hegelreader00houl |url-access=limited |publisher=Blackwell Publishers |location=Oxford |year=1998 |page=[https://archive.org/details/hegelreader00houl/page/n330 321] |isbn=0-631-20347-8 ))</ref>

==References==
((reflist))

==External links==
* ((wikisource-inline))
* ((wikiquote-inline))
* [https://archive.org/stream/cu31924014578979#page/n8/mode/1up ''Philosophy of Right''] – translation into English, 1896
* [http://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/hegel/right.pdf Complete PDF of the ''Philosophy of Right'' (McMaster University)]
* [http://www.inp.uw.edu.pl/mdsie/Political_Thought/Hegel%20Phil%20of%20Right.pdf Complete PDF of the ''Philosophy of Right'' (University of Warsaw)]
* [http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hegel/works/pr/preface.htm Preface of the ''Philosophy of Right'' at Marxist Reference Archive]
* [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hegel/ Redding, Paul, "Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]

((Ethics))
((Political philosophy))
((Authority control))

((DEFAULTSORT:Elements Of The Philosophy Of Right))
[[Category:1820 non-fiction books]]
[[Category:Works by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]]
[[Category:Ethics books]]
[[Category:Philosophy of law]]
[[Category:Social philosophy literature]]
[[Category:Political philosophy literature]]

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