Hegel – UGC NET – Political Science Notes

Hegel

(UGC NET Detailed Notes)

Western Political Thought (Unit 2)

UGC NET POLITICAL SCIENCE

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HEGEL

Table of Contents

LIFE SKETCH
IMPORTANCE OF REASON
PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY
PHILOSOPHY OF RIGHT
Family, Women and Children
Civil Society
State
Rule of Law
The Universal Class
The Monarchy
War and International Relations
DIALECTICS
POPPER’S CRITIQUE
CONCLUSION

Hegel's system is known as absolute idealism, completing the idealistic tradition that begins with Plato and culminates with Kant's critical philosophy.
Hegel's system builds on Kant's ideas, bringing them to explicit statement and full consciousness of their systematic complications.
After Hegel, ideas reappear in new forms, but this reappearance signals the impossibility of fundamental innovationin philosophy.
Hegel’s philosophy transitioned from philosophy to the domain of state and society as an intrinsic part of his system.
Major political events often lead to important political theorizing, as seen in the French Revolution's impact on German thinkers like Hegel, Kant, Fichte, and Schelling.
Compared to England and France, Germany was more backward and feudal, consisting of over 300 states linked to the Holy Roman Empire.
The Holy Roman Empire ended with Napoleon’s defeat of Prussia in 1806, impacting thinkers like Hegel who lived through these events.
Despite being in Prussia, Hegel admired Napoleon and saw him as a world soul, symbolizing progress and reason.
Hegel considered Napoleon’s defeat in 1814 a tragedy, seeing a genius vanquished by mediocrity.
Hegel’s admiration for Napoleon highlights the focus on organizing the modern state and society based on reason and individual freedom.
The Enlightenment philosophy was actualized by the French Revolution, although the terror was criticized by German thinkers.
The notion that issues become political at specific times is exemplified by German thinkers’ quest to create a modern order, abolishing feudalism and centralizing the middle class and individual.
The political order based on reason was plausible and desirable due to confidence in science and knowledge.
The backwardness of Germany made external agency necessary for change, leading to Hegel’s admiration for Napoleon as a progressive figure.
Napoleon was seen by Hegel as someone who advanced the positive aspects of the French Revolution, while eliminating its extremities (e.g., Robespierre's terror) and providing order and rule of law.
Hegel recognized the potential of modern industrial civilization to meet the needs of individuals, a view later central to Socialists and Marxists.
Saint Simon, an influential figure for Friedrich Engels, also promoted the idea of a free and rational society as a result of industrial and revolutionary progress.
Hegel's belief in human reason was linked to the optimism generated by the possibility of a prosperous societal order.
Hegel’s concepts like freedom, subject, mind, and notion were based on an unshakeable faith in human rationality.
Hegel’s eulogy of the French Revolution stemmed from his conviction that both reason and right were established through the philosophical foundation of the revolution.
Unlike pre-revolutionary beliefs, Hegel recognized that contemporary reality should not be automatically accepted; instead, a minimum standard was expected from political structures.
If a structure failed to meet the needs of the modern epoch, it had to be replaced by a more modern structure that could foster competition, progress, and affluence.
Feudalism was seen as an obstacle to the development of a modern political order, preventing healthy competitionand equality before the law.

LIFE SKETCH

Hegel was born in Stuttgart, Germany on August 27, 1770; his father was a civil servant and most of his relatives were teachers or Lutheran ministers.
He was 19 when the French Revolution broke out and 21 when the revolutionary wars began.
This period was also the golden age of German literature.
Hegel excelled as a student and won a scholarship to Tubingen seminary in 1788, where he studied philosophy and theology.
After his studies, Hegel worked as a family tutor in Switzerland (1793–1796) and later in Berne and Frankfurt(1797–1800).
His philosophical speculations began during this time.
Hegel’s father died in 1799, leaving him with a modest inheritance.
He gave up tutoring and began writing, publishing a book on the differences between Fichte and Schelling.
Hegel co-edited the Journal fur Philosophie with Schelling.
His famous work, Phenomenology of Mind, was published in 1807.
Hegel served as a university lecturer at Jena from 1801 to 1807.
After a year as a newspaper editor in Bamberg, he became headmaster of a high school in Nuremberg (1808–1816).
His major work, the Science of Logic, appeared in three volumes (1812, 1813, 1816).
By 1816, Hegel had gained significant recognition and accepted a post as professor of philosophy at the University of Heidelberg.
At Heidelberg, he wrote the Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences.
In 1818, Hegel was offered the prestigious chair of philosophy at the University of Berlin, succeeding Fichte.
He taught at Berlin from 1818 until his death in 1831, making it the most eventful period of his life.
During this time, Hegel wrote the Philosophy of Right and lectured on philosophy of history, religion, aesthetics, and the history of philosophy.
Hegel was the founder of modern idealism and a major influence in early 19th-century German philosophy, with the academic community divided into Hegelians, Left Hegelians, and Right Hegelians.
He formulated the dialectic and the theory of self-realization, offering a new theory of history as the human spiritand the march of reason in the world.
Hegel criticized purely reflective knowledge, famously stating, “the owl of Minerva spreads its wings only at the gathering of the dusk.”
His Philosophy of Right (1821) addressed key issues of law, politics, and morality, distinguishing between the stateand civil society.
Towards the end of his life, Hegel began attracting large audiences from the German-speaking world.
After his death, his disciples published many of his lecture notes.
Other well-known works of Hegel include Lectures on the Philosophy of History, Lectures on Aesthetics, Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, and Lectures on the History of Philosophy.
In 1830, Hegel was elected rector of the University of Berlin in recognition of his works.
Hegel died suddenly on November 14, 1831, at the age of 61.

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