An Ethical Modernity? : Hegel’s Concept of Ethical Life Today

227 Pages·2020·12.507 MB·English

by  Jiří Chotaš and Tereza Matějčková

An Ethical Modernity?
Critical Studies in German

Idealism
Series Editor
Paul G. Cobben
Advisory Board
Simon Critchley – Paul Cruysberghs – Rózsa Erzsébet – Garth Green
Vittorio Hösle – Francesca Menegoni – Martin Moors – Michael Quante
Ludwig Siep – Timo Slootweg – Klaus Vieweg
volume 25
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/ csgi
An Ethical Modernity?

Hegel’s Concept of Ethical Life Today
Edited by
Jiří Chotaš and Tereza Matějčková
LEIDEN | BOSTON
This work was supported by the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences and the
European Regional Development Fund- Project “Creativity and Adaptability as Conditions of the Success of
Europe in an Interrelated World” (No. CZ.02.1.01/ 0.0/ 0.0/ 16_ 019/ 0000734).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Chotaš, Jiří, 1964- editor, author. | Matějčková, Tereza, 1984- author, editor.
Title: An ethical modernity? : Hegel’s concept of ethical life today / edited by
Jiří Chotaš and Tereza Matějčková.
Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, [2020] | Series: Critical studies in German
idealism, 1878-9986 ; volume 25 | Revised and reworked papers from a conference
held in Prague in Sept. 2018–ECIP introduction. | Includes bibliographical
references and index. | An Ethical Modernity? investigates the relation between
Hegel’s doctrine of ethical life (Sittlichkeit) and modernity as a historical category
and a philosophical concept. In this collection of essays, the authors analyze
Hegel’s theory of ethical life from various perspectives: social ontology, social
practices and beliefs, theory of judgment, relations between Hegel’s theory of
ethical life and Kant’s ethics, Hegel’s philosophy of family, relation of the modern
market to ‘European values’, the ethos of state and of international relations, and
Hegel’s metaphilosophical commitment to philosophy. This volume is of importance
to anyone interested in how Hegel’s practical philosophy relates to us and our times.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020021168 (print) | LCCN 2020021169 (ebook) |
ISBN 9789004432574 (hardback) | ISBN 9789004432581 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 1770-1831. | Civilization,
Modern–Philosophy. | History–Philosophy. | Political science–Philosophy. | Ethics.
Classification: LCC CB430 .E83 2020 B2948 (print) | LCC CB430 B2948 (ebook) |
DDC 909.82–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020021168
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020021169
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/b rill- typeface.
issn 1878-9 986
isbn 978-9 0-0 4-4 3257-4 (hardback)
isbn 978-9 0-0 4-4 3258-1 (e- book)
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Contents

Notes on Contributors vii
Introduction 1
Jiří Chotaš and Tereza Matějčková
1 The Authority of Conceptual Analysis in Hegelian Ethical Life 15
W. Clark Wolf
2 Slaves to Habit: the Positivity of Modern Ethical Life 36
Bart Zantvoort
3 The Concept of Judgment on the Legal Stage: an Alternative View of
Hegel’s Theory of Freedom 58
Benno Zabel
4 Hegel’s Ethical Life as the Attempt to Offer a Home to the Categorical
Imperative 83
Paul Cobben
5 Formalism and the Actuality of Freedom: on Kant and Hegel 103
Christian Krijnen
6 Hegel’s Philosophy of the Modern Family: Fatal Families? 118
Tereza Matějčková
7 “The European Spirit”: Some Remarks on the Idea of Europe from a
Hegelian Point of View 139
Stascha Rohmer
8 The State and Ethical Life in Hegel’s Philosophy 154
Jiří Chotaš
9 “Sittlichkeit” in International Politics 173
Olga Navrátilová
vi Contents
10 Modern Philosophy and Philosophical Modernity: Hegel’s
Metaphilosophical Commitment 191
Alberto L. Siani
Supplement: Hegel’s Travels to Bohemia 204
Klaus Vieweg
Index of Names 213
Index of Subjects 216
Notes on Contributors

Jiří Chotaš
is a research fellow at the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sci-
ences. His interests include political philosophy, certain aspects of law (espe-
cially human rights, natural law, and international law), theory of knowledge
and metaphysics, and theory of higher education. He has published numerous
articles on Hegel, Kant, Humboldt, Rousseau, Locke, and Hobbes and edited
Krankheit des Zeitalters oder heilsame Provokation? (2016, with Martin Bondeli
and Klaus Vieweg) and Metaphysik und Kritik (2010, with Jindřich Karásek and
Jürgen Stolzenberg).
Paul Cobben
is Professor Emeritus at Tilburg University. He now teaches at the University of
Amsterdam and is visiting researcher at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. His
publications focus mainly on practical philosophy combining a systematic and
historical approach. Among his books are Value in Capitalist Society. Rethink-
ing Marx’s Criticism of Capitalism, Boston/L eiden: Brill (2015), The Paradigm
of Recognition: Freedom as Overcoming the Fear of Death, Boston/ Leiden: Brill
(2012), The Nature of the Self. Recognition in the Form of Right and Morality. Ber-
lin: De Gruyter (2009).
Christian Krijnen
is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. His
research focuses on Modern Philosophy, Epistemology, Philosophy of Science,
Practical Philosophy, Philosophy of Culture, Social Philosophy, Philosophy of
Economics and Management & Organization. In his numerous monographs
and articles, including Nachmetaphysischer Sinn (2001), Philosophie als System
(2008), Recognition— German Idealism as an Ongoing Challenge (2014), The
Very Idea of Organization (2015), and Metaphysics of Freedom? (2018), Kant,
Hegel, neo- Kantianism and contemporary transcendental philosophy play a
major role.
Tereza Matějčková
teaches philosophy and religious studies at Charles University in Prague, Czech
Republic. She specialises in nineteenth- and twentieth- century continental
philosophy and the philosophy of religion. She is the author of the monograph
Gibt es eine Welt in Hegels Phänomenologie des Geistes? (Tübingen: Mohr Sie-
beck, 2018, and Prague: oikoymenh, 2018). She has also authored numerous
viii Notes on Contributors
articles, among others, in Idealistic Studies, Neue Zeitschrift für Systematische
Theologie und Religionsphilosophie and The European Legacy.
Olga Navrátilová
teaches philosophy at the Protestant Theological Faculty of Charles University
in Prague. She specializes in the philosophy of German Enlightenment and
German classical philosophy and has published a book about the relation of
the state and religion in Hegel’s philosophy Stát a náboženství v Hegelově filo-
sofii [The State and Religion in Hegel’s Philosophy], (Prague: oikoymenh, 2015).
Stascha Rohmer
is a German Philosopher and Mercator- Fellow at the Catholic Faculty of the
Ruhr- University of Bochum. His main research topics are Metaphysics, An-
thropology, Philosophy of Nature and Philosophy of Law. Most impotant pub-
lications: Whiteheads Synthese von Kreativität und Rationalität (2000), Liebe—
Zukunft einer Emotion (2008), Die Idee des Lebens (2017).
Alberto L. Siani
is Associate Professor of Aesthetics at the Department of Civilizations and
Forms of Knowledge of Università di Pisa. He has done research mostly on the
aesthetics and philosophy of Hegel and German Idealism and its relevance for
the self- understanding of the modern Western world. Besides, he has research
interests in contemporary political philosophy. Among his recent publications
are the book Morte dell’arte, libertà del soggetto. Attualità di Hegel (Pisa: ets,
2017) and the edited volume Women Philosophers on Autonomy. Historical and
Contemporary Perspectives (with S. Bergès, New York: Routledge, 2018).
Klaus Vieweg
is Professor for Philosophy at the Institute of Philosophy, Friedrich- Schiller-
University Jena. His main areas of research include German Idealism, Hegel,
Practical Philosophy, Skepticism. Fellowships/ Guest Professor: Pisa, Seattle, Bo-
chum, Erlangen, Prague, Vienna, Siena, Tokyo, Kyoto, Shanghai, Rom. He is the
author of a new Hegel- biography Hegel. Der Philosoph der Freiheit, München: C.
H. Beck, 2019; Das Denken der Freiheit. Hegels Grundlinien der Philosophie des
Rechts, München: Fink, 2012; Philosophie des Remis, München: Fink, 1999. He is
editor of numerous volumes, among others, Hegels Phänomenologie des Geistes
(edited by Klaus Vieweg and Wolfgang Welsch), Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp,
2008; Skepsis und Freiheit, München: Fink, 2008.
newgenprepdf
Notes on Contributors ix
W. Clark Wolf
received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Marquette University in 2019. His areas
of research include German Idealism and the philosophy of language. Recent
publications include “Rethinking Hegel’s Conceptual Realism” (The Review of
Metaphysics) and “The Myth of the Taken: Why Hegel Is Not a Conceptualist”
(International Journal of Philosophical Studies).
Benno Zabel
Professor für Strafrecht und Rechtsphilosophie at Friedrich Wilhelms-
Universität Bonn; previously studied legal science and general and compara-
tive literature in Berlin and Leipzig; numerous publications in the field of po-
litical and legal philosophy and in penal theory.
Bart Zantvoort
is Lecturer of Philosophy at Leiden University. His research focuses on the
relation between social change and resistance to change in individuals, insti-
tutions and social structures. He edited Hegel and Resistance (with Rebecca
Comay) and has published articles on Hegel, political inertia, Critical Theory
and on Quentin Meillassoux.