Combining Texts

Ideas for 'Parmenides', 'The Source of Necessity' and 'Introduction to the Philosophy of History'

unexpand these ideas     |    start again     |     choose another area for these texts

display all the ideas for this combination of texts


2 ideas

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