American philosophy is the activity, corpus, and tradition of philosophers affiliated with the United blogger.com Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes that while it lacks a "core of defining features, American Philosophy can nevertheless be seen as both reflecting and shaping collective American identity over the history of the nation." An admission essay is an essay or other written statement by a candidate, often a potential student enrolling in a college, university, or graduate school. You can be rest assurred that through our service we will write the best admission essay for you Oct 02, · The Mighty and the Almighty: An Essay in Political Theology, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. –––, a. Understanding Liberal Democracy: Essays in Political Philosophy, ed. Terence Cuneo. Oxford: Oxford University Press. –––, b. “On Secular and Religious Groundings of Human Rights.” In Wolterstorff ()
Hegel’s Social and Political Philosophy (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel — developed a philosophy based on freedom within a wider philosophical system offering novel views on topics ranging from property and punishment to morality and the state.
Many of his other major works include discussions or analyses connected to his social and political philosophy. He also wrote various political essays during his career, many of which have been translated Hegel His work has been a major influence on significant figures from Karl Marx to Charles Taylor and beyond.
One such debate concerned whether or not his views endorsed a dangerous conservativism, sometimes described as quietest or reactionary. Yet, the more detailed comments found in the main body of the Philosophy of Right consistently favour the aims of the Prussian Reform era which were opposed by the newly ascendant political philosophy essay after making it difficult to situate this work politically at that time.
Hegel held a lifelong admiration for the French Revolution toasting the fall of the Bastille throughout his adult life. Today, most commentators agree that Popper and others were wrong to claim Hegel endorsed some view of authoritarianism. While he did advocate for more democratic and progressive elements than a reality at his time, Hegel did also defend the traditional family and constitutional monarchy. For many decades, the non-metaphysical reading has been the dominant approach. The central position political philosophy essay summed up by Z.
Hegel conceived his PR to be a part of a wider system. However, only a reading that grasps the full metaphysical foundations of his thought will political philosophy essay justice to his self-understanding Houlgate Viewing the debate from this perspective, political philosophy essay, the core contention is not about the place of metaphysics but the interpretive place of any work within the system.
This view has few political philosophy essay. There is no denying their connection, only its character and strength.
There remain differences about how much the system does or should figure as well as related metaphysical issues Wood This entry will broadly follow the dominant systematic reading, but acknowledges there is not a consensus on how strongly a justificatory role the system plays for his political thought. It was published in when Hegel taught in Berlin. This entry surveys his primary contributions in this work, but with reference to his other texts and political writings.
The relevant sections of the Encyclopaedia were intended to accompany the lectures that became published as the Philosophy of Right. The full Encyclopaedia begins with an examination of logic and then applies itself to an understanding of nature and the human spirit, where the latter incorporates analyses of psychology, art, history, religion and philosophy in addition to social and political thought.
His approach to form and content is unique, political philosophy essay. The PR is mostly divided into numbered sections §. These are occasionally supplemented by later Remarks R where Hegel elaborated further in a later edition or Additions A which took the form of edited lecture notes of what Hegel had said by his students when teaching the PR. Hegel argues his positions in a dialectical way that is not linear and designed to show how seemingly different perspectives can have their opposition somehow dissolve within a new political philosophy essay higher perspective.
For example, our first apperception of some thing or object of thought might be as a pure being. As it is pure, it may appear to lack determinations — and so be nothing. In this way, Hegel holds that our thought has moved from pure being to pure nothingness. But yet what we apperceive political philosophy essay a something and so this is seen as helping overcome the false opposition of pure being and nothingness to a new, higher category of becoming as what is before is taking further shape as we sharpen our grasp of it.
After an introduction establishing the PR as primarily a work concerned with freedom, the PR is divided into three parts, political philosophy essay. The first pure part is Abstract Right covering property and punishment followed by an opposite in Morality covering issues of conscience and moral responsibility. They become unified in a final part Ethical Life providing a more concrete reality that examines the family, civil society, law, the state and ending with war and international relations.
Each part shall be discussed in turn. Hegel conceives the PR primarily as political philosophy essay philosophy of freedom. Hegel admits the existence of right is presupposed from his philosophical system, of which the PR elaborates one part PR §2. The challenge is determining whether or not its content is a product of freedom or mere arbitrariness.
We must be able to discern the bare pursuit of being a slave to our passions like, for Hegel, the animal world from political philosophy essay rational world political philosophy essay human beings, political philosophy essay. So a philosophy of right is necessarily a philosophy of freedom that seeks to comprehend freedom actualized in how we relate to each other and construct social and political institutions.
Following his dialectical method, political philosophy essay, Hegel approaches the development of our comprehension of right through these stages: Abstract Right, Morality and Ethical Life. We progress from one stage to the next in political philosophy essay distinctive way where apparent contradictions arising in each stage are dissolved through attaining a higher stage, political philosophy essay, where this cycle is repeated and progress made since the beginning remains present where what was abstract and opaque at first becomes more concrete as we advance to the end of this work.
The first substantive stage is Abstract Right. Typically for Hegel, he uses common terminology in uncommon ways, political philosophy essay. This requires Hegel to find some ground for helping decide political philosophy essay the free will wills freely, versus when it does not.
Hegel first turns to taking possession of property. The importance of property at this stage is its development of our self-consciousness Benhabib For Hegel, political philosophy essay, I give my free will an external existence that others can engage with.
This is no ordinary contract. The context in Abstract Right is a hypothetical space of two persons. There is no money or sale of goods. All common terminology, but given different usages.
The key point, for Hegel, is that only the free will of an individual can ground the free will of another Stillman Something is mine when mutually recognized as my possession by another. This is the first appearance of right where the activity of my free will in taking possession is free, and not mere arbitrariness. It is this agreement between two individuals forming a kind of contract which is so important for Hegel.
This is because mutual recognition becomes a vehicle for how we can develop further a more concrete understanding of freedom as right in the world. If such recognition was under threat, this would unsettle how we can ground our free will in a free will of another.
This section has been widely interpreted by many scholars to offer a clear retributivist theory of crime and punishment CooperPrimoratz At first glance, it is easy to see why. Hegel distinguishes three kinds of wrongs. The first is unintentional PR §84— This is where both individuals are adhering to what they believe has been mutually recognized, but one is unwittingly incorrect.
One side is in error, political philosophy essay, but there is a strict appeal to the proper recognition of right. The second kind of wrong is deception PR §87— This is more serious than unintentional wrongs because while political philosophy essay parties claim to each other that they appeal to right, one side does so insincerely. Thus deception has a different and more serious character than unintentional wrongs. This is political philosophy essay one party makes no appeal at all to right.
The wrong [ Unrecht ] that they seek is to deny an appeal to right. This is a direct and tangible threat to mutual recognition as one party is not merely insincere, but acts regardless of right — and to that extent acts arbitrarily, and so political philosophy essay. Hegel describes crime as an infringement of right, of mutual recognition PR §95 Remark. For example, the punishment of theft sends a message to the thief and wider community that this crime should not have happened — and in punishing the crime Hegel believes it can help to restore the right violated.
His theory of punishment is widely characterized as retributivist and it is easy to see why, political philosophy essay. But this commonly held view is controversial for several reasons. There is no state or laws, political philosophy essay, no police or judiciary Stillman A hypothetical scenario lacking prisons is hardly any complete theory of punishment, political philosophy essay.
In fact, there is neither judge nor jury in Abstract Right to say who is right or wrong. This is because, political philosophy essay, when we view this section in its systematic context, political philosophy essay, Hegel is drawing attention to certain foundational ideas about wrongs more generally e. However, Hegel does foreshadow his later and more substantive discussion of punishment with a non-retributivist character at this point Brooks a, political philosophy essay.
It is important to note at this point that these sections discussing commonly used concepts like property and contract as well as crime and punishment in uncommon ways all reappear when Hegel turns his attention to the final part of Ethical Life. When Hegel concludes Abstract Right, he seeks to resolve a tension. Abstract Right had been focused purely on the external appearance of right through taking possession and forming a contract through mutual recognition. While we have political philosophy essay taking ownership and wrongs in relation to the mutual recognition of external property, this points us forward to our having to grasp the particularity of our inner ownership of right.
This perspective leads Hegel to open a new, second stage he calls Morality, but again using common terms in uncommon ways. To this end, Hegel is a champion, not an enemy, of individual liberty as he is clear that there must be space for subjective freedom. The problem with our individual power of choice is that we may well be mistaken about what we choose PR § Remark.
Recalling our separateness from others in Morality, he says we may intend good but our only guide is our individual conception of the good PR § Addition. A more substantive guide awaits reflecting about ourselves acting in relation to others concretely in Ethical Life.
Thus, for Hegel, moral philosophy of any kind is by its nature empty. Undoubtedly, Kant does offer Hegel some ammunition for this criticism. At first glance, it might appear Kantian morality is about following a formula and no more. Our anthropology matters for Kant and he does not see our living ethically in merely living without contradiction. Hegel claims a religious point of view can political philosophy essay furnish individuals with ethical principles and help us lead a more ethical life PR § Addition.
As should be clear, Morality can only make so much progress in individual abstraction. What is required is a transition bringing together the universality of Abstract Right enveloping us all and providing a foundation in mutual recognition with the particularity of Morality where we both outwardly and inwardly grasp the development of right. This bridge is to the concrete individuality found in comprehending right — not in abstraction — but now in the world and its institutions.
The following discussion retains an abstract character insofar as Hegel discusses institutions that existed at his time — like the family, civil political philosophy essay and the state — but in ways meant to bring out the rational within the actual and actual within the rational see Stern For example, core ideas about what constitutes a wrong from his discussion of punishment return, but with a deeper and evolved understanding of their place in a social context that brings out a different character and complexity to his views — which is intended to unpack the character and complexity of political philosophy essay inner rationality that Hegel believes we can discern in the world.
Ethical Life is divided into three parts where political philosophy essay builds off of the analysis thus far into the nature of Abstract Right and Morality, but where each part, in turn, develops after the other.
This ordering is not chronological, but dialectical.
How to write a Philosophy Paper (Basics)
, time: 5:11The Republic: Study Guide | SparkNotes
American philosophy is the activity, corpus, and tradition of philosophers affiliated with the United blogger.com Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes that while it lacks a "core of defining features, American Philosophy can nevertheless be seen as both reflecting and shaping collective American identity over the history of the nation." From a general summary to chapter summaries to explanations of famous quotes, the SparkNotes The Republic Study Guide has everything you need to ace quizzes, tests, and essays An admission essay is an essay or other written statement by a candidate, often a potential student enrolling in a college, university, or graduate school. You can be rest assurred that through our service we will write the best admission essay for you
No comments:
Post a Comment