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Ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'Causality: Production and Propagation' and 'Elements of the Philosophy of Right'

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5 ideas

25. Social Practice / A. Freedoms / 1. Slavery

21789	Slaves have no duties because they have no rights [Hegel]
	Full Idea: Slaves have no duties because they have no rights.
	From: Georg W.F.Hegel (Elements of the Philosophy of Right [1821], 261), quoted by Stephen Houlgate - An Introduction to Hegel 08 'Freedom'
	A reaction: Does this correlation go all the way up society? Do I only have duties insofar as I have correlative rights? Monarchs seem to have maximum duties and maximum rights. Democratic leaders seem thereby to get a raw deal.

22776	Slaves are partly responsible for their own condition [Hegel]
	Full Idea: If someone is a slave, his own will is responsible. The wrong of slavery is not only the fault of those who enslave people, but of the slaves themselves. …[66 add: The slave has an absolute right to free himself]
	From: Georg W.F.Hegel (Elements of the Philosophy of Right [1821], 057 add)
	A reaction: He accepts that enslaving people is wrong. Are the slaves at fault for losing their struggle? Would Hegel approve of someone giving modern weapons to the slaves?

25. Social Practice / A. Freedoms / 5. Freedom of lifestyle

21778	True liberal freedom is to pursue something, while being free to cease the pursuit [Hegel, by Houlgate]
	Full Idea: The third moment of liberal freedom for Hegel is the unity of the first two - the freedom to engage in some specific pursuit, but in so doing to preserve the sense that one is not irrevocably committed to that pursuit.
	From: report of Georg W.F.Hegel (Elements of the Philosophy of Right [1821], 005) by Stephen Houlgate - An Introduction to Hegel 08 'The Limits'
	A reaction: Not too surprising, but Hegel is interesting for thinking that we shouldn't just rabbit on about having 'freedom', but should investigate more closely what this is exactly supposed to mean.

21779	People assume they are free, but the options available are not under their control [Hegel]
	Full Idea: The ordinary man believes himself to be free ...to act as he wants, but this arbitrariness entails that he is not free, because what it is that he wills is not intrinsic to self-determining activity, ...and depends on a given content and material.
	From: Georg W.F.Hegel (Elements of the Philosophy of Right [1821], 015), quoted by Stephen Houlgate - An Introduction to Hegel 08 'The Limits'
	A reaction: [a bit compressed] I take this to be an extraordinarily influential idea (especially for Marx). Hitherto philosophers just wanted some vague metaphysical 'free will', making moral responsibility and pure reason possible. But who controls the options?

25. Social Practice / A. Freedoms / 6. Political freedom

22085	Freedom requires us to submit to a family, or a corporation, or a state [Hegel, by Houlgate]
	Full Idea: Hegel thinks that political and social freedom involves letting one's actions be guided by those institutional structures (such as the family, corporations and the state) which secure rights, welfare, and mutual respect.
	From: report of Georg W.F.Hegel (Elements of the Philosophy of Right [1821]) by Stephen Houlgate - Hegel 102
	A reaction: Since there are some hideous families, corporations and states, we will need more than that. He may have a point, though, that the rights we desire can only exist in healthy examples of such institutions. Popper loved institutions.