Hegel's Critique of Liberal Theories of Rights

1974 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 1086-1092 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter G. Stillman
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
The State ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Political Freedom ◽  
Human Being ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Philosophy Of Right

In “Abstract Right,” the first part of the Philosophy of Right, Hegel criticizes the usual content and formulations of liberal theories of rights. In terms of content, Hegel argues that the subject of rights is only a narrow abstraction from the full human being; that he has limited self-determination and limited political freedom; and that, when he acts on his rights, he produces terror and destruction. In terms of formulations, Hegel argues that the pervasiveness of contract relations is inaccurate and undesirable; that the state cannot be derived from the natural man's alienating his right to punish; and that it is inaccurate to conceptualize civil society as only limiting natural man's freedoms. By transforming natural to abstract rights, Hegel retains much of the substance of rights, while concurrently preparing for the later sections of his text which try to overcome the inadequacies of a political theory based only on rights.

Domestic Colonies

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Arneil
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Abraham Lincoln ◽  
The State ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Alexis De Tocqueville ◽  
Modern History ◽  
Peter Kropotkin

Colonization is generally defined as a process by which states settle and dominate foreign lands or peoples. Thus, modern colonies are assumed to be outside Europe and the colonized non-European. This volume contends such definitions of the colony, the colonized, and colonization need to be fundamentally rethought in light of hundreds of ‘domestic colonies’ proposed and/or created by governments and civil society organizations initially within Europe in the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries and then beyond. The three categories of domestic colonies in this book are labour colonies for the idle poor, farm colonies for the mentally ill, and disabled and utopian colonies for racial, religious, and political minorities. All of these domestic colonies were justified by an ideology of domestic colonialism characterized by three principles: segregation, agrarian labour, improvement, through which, in the case of labour and farm colonies, the ‘idle’, ‘irrational’, and/or custom-bound would be transformed into ‘industrious and rational’ citizens while creating revenues for the state to maintain such populations. Utopian colonies needed segregation from society so their members could find freedom, work the land, and challenge the prevailing norms of the society around them. Defended by some of the leading progressive thinkers of the period, including Alexis de Tocqueville, Abraham Lincoln, Peter Kropotkin, Robert Owen, Tommy Douglas, and Booker T. Washington, the turn inward to colony not only provides a new lens with which to understand the scope of colonization and colonialism in modern history but a critically important way to distinguish ‘the colonial’ from ‘the imperial’ in Western political theory and practice.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel: Philosophy of Politics

Philosophy ◽  
2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thom Brooks
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel ◽  
The State ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Seminal Work ◽  
History Of ◽  
Philosophy Of Right

G. W. F. Hegel is widely considered to be one of the most important philosophers in the history of philosophy. This entry focuses on his contributions to political philosophy, with particular attention paid to his seminal work: the Philosophy of Right. A particular focus will be placed on Hegel’s theories of freedom, contract and property, punishment, morality, family, civil society, law, and the state.

Transcending the Emergence/Reduction Distinction: The Case of Biology

2005 ◽  
Vol 56 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Rom Harré
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Molecular Orbitals ◽  
Quantum States ◽  
Coherent System ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Disciplinary Practices ◽  
Scientific Disciplines ◽  
Material Substance ◽  
The Subject

The groups of problems that fall under the titles ‘reduction’ and ‘emergence’ appear at the boundaries of seemingly independent and well-established scientific disciplines, such as chemistry and biology, biology and psychology, biology and political theory, and so on. They arise in this way:1. There is a widespread intellectual ‘urge’ towards developing a common discourse for adjacent disciplinary practices such as biology and chemistry, biology and psychology, law and psychiatry. To achieve this goal a unified and coherent system of concepts would be required that would be adequate to describe and to explain the phenomena which are the subject matter of both disciplines.2. There is a discontinuity between the concepts native to each of the adjacent disciplines in that predications from each to a common subject such as a sample of a material substance, or a process or a human being, appear to be incompatible. For example to describe a certain reaction as ‘reducing’ and to describe it in terms of the quantum states of molecular orbitals is an incompatible predication. For example to say that a brain is thinking and that that brain is taking up glucose is an incompatible predication since the criteria for these assertions are radically different. Or, to say that a human being is ill and to say that a human being is malfunctioning is an incompatible predication, since the former requires the speaker to treat the human being as a person, and the latter as an organism. Just what these various differences amount to will be the main aim of this paper.

Hegel and Marx on the Necessity of the Reign of Terror

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-223
Author(s):  
David James
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Freedom ◽  
Modern State ◽  
The World ◽  
Reign Of Terror

AbstractBoth Hegel and Marx appear committed to the idea that the Reign of Terror was in some sense necessary. I argue that Hegel explains this necessity in terms of the concept of ‘absolute freedom’, together with the associated self-conception and normative picture of the world. It will be argued that Marx also views the Reign of Terror as necessary because of an abstract conception of political freedom and the citizen which conflicts with a determinate individuality that is characterized by particular interests and identities. In connection with Marx’s critique of Hegel’s theory of the modern state I draw attention to a puzzle, the discussion of which will lead to a brief account of how Marx’s attempt to overcome the opposition between the state and civil society differs from Hegel’s.

Civil society, oil and conflict in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria: ramifications of civil society for a regional resource struggle

2001 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 437-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Augustine Ikelegbe
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Niger Delta ◽  
The State ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Delta Region ◽  
Environmental Rights ◽  
Niger Delta Region

Civil society has been associated with challenges and popular struggles for state and democratic reforms. Though these may relate to the articulation of substantive ethnic, regional and communal demands, few studies have addressed the dynamics and ramifications of their engagement in struggles other than democratisation. This study focuses on the ramifications of the entrance of civil society into a regional resource agitation in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The study finds that civil society has flowered, taken over and escalated the struggle and constructed itself into a solid formation of regional resistance. Civil groups have reconstructed the agitation into a broad, participatory, highly mobilised and coordinated struggle and redirected it into a struggle for self-determination, equity and civil and environmental rights. The study denotes the roles that civil society can play in the sociopolitical process and reveals the dynamics of their encounters with the state and multinational corporations.

Hegel's System of Needs: The Elementary Relations of Economic Justice

1998 ◽  
Vol 19 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 51-72
Author(s):  
David Merrill
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Economic Justice ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Social Character ◽  
Natural Necessity ◽  
Philosophy Of Right ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
Rule Out

The Philosophy of Right is not usually taken to contain a prescriptive ethics. Yet to establish as much regarding the elementary relations of the economy is the task of this essay. The project is cast into three parts. It begins with Hegel's account in the ‘Introduction’ of the free self prior to the exposition of the modes of just conduct or philosophy of right proper. It is an account of freedom not yet realized — without any particular content. Yet, the point is established that the philosophy of justice will be based on a twofold notion of self-determination. Most of the ‘Introduction’ concerns the argument that freedom or valid conduct has to do with pure self-determination, the self determining itself. The claim is also made that philosophy establishes its own legitimacy through its conceptual self-determination. Part two deals with the question of how freedom can be realized in civil society where the individual's governing orientation is particularity. The characteristic features of civil society do not encourage the expectation that freedom can be realized there. One, particularity itself appears to be rooted in a natural necessity which seems to preclude any possibility of freedom. Two, the inherently social character of civil society seems to rule out the exercise of a freedom that is about the self's relation to itself in self-determination. Three, the pursuit of particularity characteristic of civil society seems inherently antisocial and thus not a suitable mode of conduct for ethics. However, the argument will be made that the theory can conceive of the relations of particularity in a way that makes the free self inherently social and particularity both social and free from natural determinations.

Gerard of Odo (c.1290–c.1349)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bonnie Kent
Keyword(s):  
Moral Responsibility ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Nicomachean Ethics ◽  
Human Being ◽  
The Subject

Gerard of Odo, a scholastic philosopher and theologian who wrote a long commentary on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, is one of many scholastics who attempted to reconcile Aristotle’s teachings with the views of Christian authorities. Gerard’s work declares the subject of ethics to be the human being as free, makes the will’s power of self-determination a necessary condition for moral responsibility, and in other respects reflects the voluntarism commonly found in Franciscan writings of the period.

Staat und Zivilgesellschaft

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
The State ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Path Dependencies ◽  
Contextual Dependence ◽  
History Of ◽  
State Of Tension ◽  
The Relationship

The relationship between the state and civil society can be characterised as complex, disharmonious and dynamic. The complexity results from the historical conditions of its origin and the different ways of thinking, grasping and structuring the relationship. The relationship is disharmonious because although it can theoretically be thought of as equal, this equality, in fact, hardly exists. The relationship is dynamic because it is in a permanent state of tension between the path dependencies of the history of ideas, and therefore can and must be constantly rethought. This anthology attempts to grasp and illuminate the relationship between the state and civil society in all its complexity by paying special attention to the contextual dependence of the genesis of this complicated relationship. With the emergence of the modern state based on sovereignty, the state entered into opposition with civil society. Modern political theory has devoted much of its energy to reflecting this antagonism and bridging the gap between the two. With contributions by Nelson Chacón, Julian Dörr, Christopher Gohl, Oliver Hidalgo, Heinz Kleger, Alexander Kruska, Antoine Lévy, Andreas Nix, Edwin QuirogaMolano and Michael Zantke.

scholarly journals An analysis on the variations of the concept of power in the political and social environment

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 412-418
Author(s):  
Ionathan Junges ◽  
Tiago Anderson Brutti ◽  
Everton da Silveira ◽  
Adriana da Silva Silveira ◽  
Claudio Everaldo dos Santos
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Interpersonal Relationships ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Subject ◽  
State Domination ◽  
Micro Structures

The concept of power acquires different meanings according to the dimension, the historical cut and the circumstances that are being analyzed. Power has been characterized as the base of state domination over civil society and individuals. However, the concept of power can not be reduced to a univocal sense, because it also occurs in interpersonal relationships and social micro-structures. This article reviews the literature on the subject from the works of Machiavelli, Hobbes, Arendt, Foucault, Bobbio and Bauman, highlighting the various configurations and manifestations of power, mitigating its centralization at the state instance and extending to other dimensions of society.

scholarly journals Europeanization and Modernization of the Discourse of Civil society and Political Parties

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 18-23
Author(s):  
S. P. Mitrakhovich
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
The State ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Present Stage ◽  
Brics Countries ◽  
Western Influence ◽  
The Subject

The article examines the evolution at the present stage of theoretical and normative ideas about the role of civil society and political parties in their relationship with the state and their influence on social processes and the economy. Most concepts, offering theoretical reflexion on this issue, appeared in the West, and due to Western influence was borrowed by Russia and other countries, where the discourse of civil society and political parties itself was Europeanized. However, the formal adherence to European intellectual fashion in the most ambitious BRICS countries has now led to the formation of its own analytical and regulatory views on the subject, only externally resembling Western primary sources. At the same time, the use of rethought European views in modernising the own discourse of civil society and political parties allows to give this discourse a respectable image and to be effectively used by the state both for domestic political purposes and in conceptual foreign policy disputes with Europe itself.

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