Combining Philosophers

Ideas for Hermarchus, Hermann von Helmholtz and Georg W.F.Hegel

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6 ideas

24. Political Theory / A. Basis of a State / 1. A People / b. The natural life

23275	The state of nature is one of untamed brutality [Hegel]
	Full Idea: The 'state of nature' is not an ideal condition, but a condition of injustice, of violence, of untamed natural drives, inhuman acts and emotions.
	From: Georg W.F.Hegel (Introduction to the Philosophy of History [1840], 3)
	A reaction: He agrees with Hobbes, and disagrees with Rousseau. Hobbes's solution is authoritarian monarchy, but Hegel's solution is the unified and focused state, in which freedom can be realised.

24. Political Theory / A. Basis of a State / 1. A People / c. A unified people

20414	Hegel's Absolute Spirit is the union of human rational activity at a moment, and whatever that sustains [Hegel, by Eldridge]
	Full Idea: We may take Hegel's Absolute Spirit to be the union of collective, human rational activity at a historical moment with its proper object, the forms of social and individual life that the rational activity is devoted to understanding and sustaining.
	From: report of Georg W.F.Hegel (works [1812]) by Richard Eldridge - G.W.F. Hegel (aesthetics) 1
	A reaction: From this formulation it sounds as if the whole human race might have momentary union, but presumably it is more local 'peoples' that can exhibit this.

22787	The family is the first basis of the state, but estates are a necessary second [Hegel]
	Full Idea: While the family is the primary basis of the state, the estates are second. The latter are of special importance, because private persons, despite their selfishness, must have recourse to others.
	From: Georg W.F.Hegel (Elements of the Philosophy of Right [1821], 201 add)
	A reaction: He mentions agriculture as an estate. The implication is that interactions between families requires state institutions, but in simpler societies families can obviously interact and help one another directly. He wants the state to be indispensable.

23276	The soul of the people is an organisation of its members which produces an essential unity [Hegel]
	Full Idea: The soul [of the people] exists only insofar as it is an organisation of its members, which - by taking itself together in its simple unity - produce the soul. Thus the people is one individuality in its essence.
	From: Georg W.F.Hegel (Introduction to the Philosophy of History [1840], 3)
	A reaction: Hegel is seen (e.g. by Charles Taylor) as the ancestor of a rather attractive communitarianism, but I think Popper is more accurate in seeing him as the first stage of modern totalitarianism. The people seen as one individual terrifies me.

24. Political Theory / A. Basis of a State / 3. Natural Values / c. Natural rights

22790	We cannot assert rights which are unnatural [Hegel]
	Full Idea: No one can assert a right against nature.
	From: Georg W.F.Hegel (Elements of the Philosophy of Right [1821], 244 add)
	A reaction: Although the existence of natural rights is dubious (or nonsense, for Bentham), this is a vague but sensible constraint on what can plausibly be asserted as a right. The rights we create in society must respond to natural needs.

21785	We are only free, with rights, if we claim our freedom, and there are no natural rights [Hegel, by Houlgate]
	Full Idea: Hegel says we are only truly free, and so bearers of rights, in so far as we claim our freedom. ...So there are no merely natural rights, and animal's have no rights.
	From: report of Georg W.F.Hegel (Lectures on the Philosophy of Right [1819], p.78) by Stephen Houlgate - An Introduction to Hegel 08 'Rights'
	A reaction: If there are no natural rights, then it is hard to see how claiming a right will create it. I can't create a right to drink the best champagne. It seems particularly unjust to deny rights to people so enslaved that freedom has never occurred to them.