Abstract

This dissertation systhesizes the more "programmatic" interpretations of Hegel's political philosophy typical of German-language secondary literature with the more "pragmatic" interpretations typical of English-language secondary literature. While the former tend to recognize that Hegel has a distinctive approach to political philosophy, this insight is usually left on the level of somewhat sweeping generalizations about methodology. The latter, though evincing appropriate concern for the details of the political institutions proposed in the Philosophy of Right, often misinterpret Hegel by too facilely assimilating his thought to more familiar claims made in the liberal or Marxist traditions. The first half of this study elicits from the Philosophy of Right the basic categories of Hegelian political thought, and the second half develops a systematic interpretation of the institutions of the Hegelian state which instantiate these categories. ;The early chapters examine one aspect of Hegelian political theory in particular. They argue for a strong sense in which Hegel's philosophy of history shapes the basic philosophical enterprise of the Philosophy of Right. Against views which hold that historical considerations are irrelevant to the substantive or logical content of the Philosophy of Right, or that the form of logical deduction in which Hegel presents his views is an unfortunate distortion of the material in the text, they argue that at key points the form of the work significantly illuminates the doctrines espoused in the text, and that this form is dictated by Hegel's understanding of the particular form of historical political rationality ushered in by the era of the French Revolution. The analysis demonstrates that the key factor here is Hegel's claim that the modern era has come to be essentially characterized by a new form of rational universalist consciousness which finds expression in the Philosophy of Right and the modern attempt to found political institutions on the self-consciousness of the members of those political systems. ;Against this background, later chapters argue that the guiding feature of the Hegelian state is the attempt to delineate a system of political institutions which progressively engender in the citizens an ever more conscious awareness of their roles as political agents. This essential component of Hegel's political idealism means that the civil society - state transition can best be understood as a kind of perspectival shift from an economistic standpoint which Hegel criticizes as inadequate for political theory because of its lack of self-consciousness to a properly political standpoint. These sections argue that this relationship in Hegel has been misinterpreted from within either the traditional liberal or Marxist political logics, which share many of the economistic assumptions criticized by Hegel. Lastly, an interpretation of the Hegelian state is offered which shows that the basic criterion used by Hegel in proposing the appropriate institutions of the state , is their ability to successfully engender an appropriate political consciousness in those who participate in these institutions