Hegel (17701831) belongs to the period of German

idealism in the decades following Kant. The most systematic of the post-Kantian idealists, Hegel attempted, throughout his published writings as well as in his lectures, to elaborate a comprehensive and systematic ontology from a logical starting point.

 He is most well-known for his teleological account of

history, an account which was later taken over by Marx and inverted into a materialist theory of an historical development.

 Hegels overall system is divided into the science of

Logic, the philosophy of Nature, and the philosophy of Spirit. Of most enduring topics are : History, Society, and the State.

 At the core of Hegels social and political thought are

the concepts of freedom, reason, selfconsciousness, and recognition. There are important connections between the metaphysical or speculative articulation of these ideas and their application to social and political reality.

The Master-Slave dialectic

It is the common name for a famous passage of Hegel's

Phenomenology of Spirit, though the original German phrase, Herrschaft und Knechtschaft. It is widely considered a key element in Hegel's philosophical system, and has heavily influenced many subsequent philosophers

He describes
The development of self-consciousness as such in an

encounter between two distinct, self-conscious beings; the essence of the dialectic is the movement or motion of recognizing, in which the two selfconsciousnesses are constituted each in being recognized as self-conscious by the other. This movement, taken to its extreme, takes the form of a "struggle to the death" in which one masters the other, only to find that such lordship makes the very recognition he had sought impossible, since the bondsman, in this state, is not free to offer it.

 That the master-slave dialectic can be interpreted as

an internal process occurring in one person or as an external process between two or more people is a result, in part, of the fact that Hegel asserts an "end to the antithesis of subject and object". What occurs in the human mind also occurs outside of it. The objective and subjective, according to Hegel, sublate one another until they are unified, and the "story" takes this process through its various "moments" when the lifting up of two contradictory moments results in a higher unity.

 Hegel published his first major work, the

Phenomenology of Spirit (Phnomenologie des Geistes, 1807) which was delivered to the publisher just at the time of the occupation of Jena by Napoleons armies.

 One year following the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo

(1815), Hegel took the position of Professor of Philosophy at the University of Heidelberg where he published his first edition of the Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences in Outline (Encyklopdie der philosophischen Wissenschaften im Grundrisse, 1817).

 In 1818 he became Professor of Philosophy at the

University of Berlin, through the invitation of the Prussion minister von Altenstein , who had introduced many liberal reforms in Prussia until the fall of Napoleon. Hegel taught there until he died in 1831. Hegel lectured on various topics in philosophy, most notably on history, art, religion, and the history of philosophy.

 In 1821 he published the Philosophy of Right

(Philosophie des Rechts) and in 1830 was given the honor of being elected Rector of the University. On November 14, 1831 Hegel died of cholera in Berlin.

 He provides an analysis and critique of the

constitution of the German Empire with the main theme being that the Empire is a thing of the past and that appeals for a unified German state are anachronistic. Hegel finds a certain hypocrisy in German thinking about the Empire and a gap between theory and practice in the German constitution.

 Germany was no longer a State governed by law but

rather a plurality of independent political entities with disparate practices. Hegel stresses the need to recognize that the realities of the modern state necessitate a strong public authority along with a public that is free and unbound.

English Reform Bill

The principle of government in the modern world is

constitutional monarchy, the potentialities of which can be seen in Austria and Prussia. The last of Hegels political works, The English Reform Bill, was written in installments in 1831 for the ministerial newspaper, the Preussische Staatszeitung, but was interrupted due to censure by the Prussian King because of the perception of its being overly critical and anti-English.

 Hegels main analysis of the proposed English reforms

of suffrage is that it will not make much of a difference in the distribution of political power and may only create a power struggle between the rising group of politicians and the traditional ruling class.

 Moreover, there are deep problems in English society

that cannot be addressed by the proposed electoral reforms, including political corruption in the selling of seats in parliament, and the general oligarchic nature of social reality including the wide disparities between wealth and poverty, Religious patronage, and conditions in Ireland.

 Hegel regularly presents a political rationalism

which attacks old concepts and attitudes that no longer apply to the modern world. Old constitutions stemming from the Feudal era are a confused mixture of customary laws and special privileges that must give way to the constitutional reforms of the new social and political world that has arrived in the aftermath of the French Revolution.

 The reforms of old constitutions must be thorough

and radical, but also cautious and gradual. This might sound somewhat inconsistent, but for Hegel a reform is radical due to a fundamental change in direction, not the speed of such change.

History & determinism

In Phenomenology of Spirit, Hegel openly espouses

determinism by stating that "world history exhibits nothing other than the plan of providence." He is consistent in his assertion that history follows a specific path, one predetermined by the purposeful moveme nt of Spirit through time: Spirit does not toss itself about in the external play of chance occurrences; on the contrary, it is that which determines history absolutely, and it stands firm against the chance occurrences which it dominates and exploits for its own purpose.

 Hegel views the course of history as a fixed, immutable

fact. Despite these seemingly self-evident statements of absolute determinism, however, Hegel clearly recognized that contingency continued to exist in the world. He concurred that "chance occurrences" were indeed a part of history, but did not see them as an active or even particularly noteworthy element. They simply were not significant in terms of what really mattered: the meaning of history itself.

 To some extent, this confusion can be traced to the

fundamental differences between philosophy and history. Whereas philosophy deals primarily with universal rules and meanings, history generally applies itself to definite periods of change or unrest. Philosophy sees all things as essentially the same; history engages events as particular products of their time and space. And Hegel, a philosopher of history, is caught in the middle of this gap.

Hegels Triad

Truth, Metaphysics & Nature

Hegel's task becomes even more difficult by the

question of where to search for this "truth." As a philosopher of history, Hegel concerns are primarily focused upon the finding basic truths regarding the nature of reality. Because he seeks metaphysical "first principles" of nature.

 His theory, though grounded in historical facts, was

based upon deductive and not inductive reasoning. The Hegelian model thus opens itself to criticism as a preconceived (and therefore uninformed) assessment of world historical events.

 The system embodied within Hegel's philosophy of

history is essentially that of a dialectical progression. To give a brief outline, this model begins with an existing element, or thesis, with contradictions inherent to its structure. These contradictions create the thesis' direct opposite, or antithesis, bringing about a period of conflict between the two. The new element, or synthesis, that emerges from this conflict then discovers its own internal contradictions, and starts the process anew.

 The reason the Hegelian dialectic is termed "progressive" is because each new thesis represents an advance over the previous thesis, continually until an endpoint (or final goal) is reached. To specifically apply this model Hegel's view of world history, it represents the manner in which the Spirit develops gradually into its purest form, ultimately recognizing its own essential freedom. To Hegel, "world history is thus the unfolding of Spirit in time, as nature is the unfolding of the Idea in space." The dialectical process thus virtually defines the meaning of history for Hegel.

Change/reform?
Hegel suggests that customary institutions not be

abolished too quickly for there must be some equivalence and continuity with the existing social conditions. He rejects violent popular action and sees the principal force for reform in governments and the estates assemblies, and he thinks reforms should always stress legal equality and the public welfare.

Government and civil society

Hegel emphasizes the need for a strong central government, even though without complete centralized control of public administration and social relations. Hegel here anticipates his later conception of civil society (brgerliche Gesellschaft), the social realm of individual autonomy where there is significant local self-governance. The task of government is not to thoroughly bureaucratize civil society but rather to provide oversight, regulation, and when necessary intervention.

Representation & suffrage

Hegel claims that representation of the people must

be widespread but not atomistic. The democratic element in a state is not its sole feature and it must be institutionalized in a rational manner. Hegel rejects universal suffrage as irrational becuase he believed that the masses lacked the experience and political education to be directly involved in national elections and policy matters and that direct suffrage leads to electoral indifference and apathy.

 The concept of universal suffrage originally referred to

all male citizens having the right to vote, regardless of property requirements or other measures of wealth. The first system to explicitly claim to use universal suffrage was France which is generally recognized as the first national system to abolish all property requirements for voting. .

 In theory France first used universal (male) suffrage in

1792 during the revolutionary period, although the turmoil of the period made this ineffective. France and Switzerland have used universal male suffrage continuously since 1848 (for resident male citizens), longer than any other countries. The German Empire had universal male suffrage from its beginning in 1871. New Zealand became the first nation in the world to achieve universal suffrage in 1893

Power?
Hegel, while acknowledging the importance of a

division of powers in the public authority, he does not appeal to a conception of separation and balance of powers. He views the estates assemblies, which safeguard freedom, as essentially related to the monarch and also stresses the role of civil servants and members of the professions, both in ministerial positions and in the assemblies.

 The monarchy, however, is the central supporting

element in the constitutional structure because the monarch is invested with the sovereignty of the state. However, the power of the monarch is not despotical for he exercises authority through universal laws and statutes and is advised and assisted by a ministry and civil service, all members of which must meet educational requirements.

 In this work, civil society was a stage in the dialectical

relationship that occurs between Hegel's perceived opposites, the macro-community of the State and the micro-community of the Family.