Reinstating Reflection: The Dialectic of Conscience within Hegel’s Philosophy of Right
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Sarah Jennings
Abstract
Although it is now widely acknowledged that Hegel’s political philosophy is based freedom, there is still divided opinion regarding the role of conscience within Hegel’s Philosophy of Right. In fact, it is often claimed that Hegel allows insufficient room for conscience (and thus subjective freedom) within the political realm he describes. This article responds to such criticism and argues that Hegel allocates an irreducible function for conscience within his political state. It begins by examining the emergence of conscience within the morality section of the text and then continues to establish what happens to the conscience during the Aufhebung of morality into ethical life (of which Hegel’s state is a part). It argues that, during this dialectical transition, all the essential moments of moral conscience are preserved in the true conscience of ethical life. This article puts forward a reading of true ethical conscience that combines its right to subjective reflection alongside its respect for objective institutions, thus demonstrating that conscience can operate as a meaningful part of Hegel’s political state.
© 2014 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Reinstating Reflection: The Dialectic of Conscience within Hegel’s Philosophy of Right
- The Existence and Reality of Negative Facts
- The Subjective Experience of Poverty
- Diagnostic Preliminaries to Applying a Theory of Decision
- On the Possibility of Realist Dialetheism
- The Meaning of “Meaning” from a Hermeneutic Point of View
- Ethical Aspects of Self-Forgiveness
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Reinstating Reflection: The Dialectic of Conscience within Hegel’s Philosophy of Right
- The Existence and Reality of Negative Facts
- The Subjective Experience of Poverty
- Diagnostic Preliminaries to Applying a Theory of Decision
- On the Possibility of Realist Dialetheism
- The Meaning of “Meaning” from a Hermeneutic Point of View
- Ethical Aspects of Self-Forgiveness
