The state and civil society: studies in Hegel's political philosophy

336 Pages·1984·33.751 MB·English

by  Zbigniew Andrzej Pelczynski

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STATE 1
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&CEVEl,
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Studies in
egel's Political
Phil s h
EDITED BY Z.A.PELCZYNSKI
THE STATE
AND CIVIL SOCIETY
Studies in Hegel's Political Philosophy
edited by
Z. A. Pelczynski
FELLOW OF PEMBROKE COLLEGE, OXFORD
The r,ghl of the
University of Cambridge
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© Cambridge University Press 1984
First published 1984
Printed in Great Britain by the
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Library of Congress catalogue card number: 84-3 144
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
The State and civil society.
r. Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich-Political science
I. Pelczynski, Z. A.
320.5' 092' 4 JC23J.H46
ISBN o 521 24793 4 hardcovers
ISBN o 521 28969 6 paperback.
l:P

CONTENTS
Preface vu
Introduction: The significance of Hegel's separation of the state
and civil society
Z. A. PELCZYNSKI, Fellow and Lecturer in Politics, Pembroke
College, Oxford
From self-consciousness to community: act and recognition in the
master-slave relationship 14
J.M. BERNSTEIN, Lecturer in Philosophy, Essex University
Hegel, Plato and Greek 'Sittlichkeit' 40
M. J. INWOOD, Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy, Trinity College,
Oxford
Political community and individual freedom in Hegel's philosophy
of state 55
z. A. PELCZYNSKI
Hegel's radical idealism: family and state as ethical communities 77
MEROLD WESTPHAL, Professor of Philosophy, Hope College,
Holland, Michigan
Hegel's concept of the state and Marx's early critique 93
ef
K.-H. IL TING, Professor of Philosophy, University the Saar
Towards a new systematic reading of Hegel's Philosophy of Right 114
KLAUS HARTMANN, Professor of Philosophy, University of
Tubingen
Propaganda and analysis: the background to Hegel's article on the
English Reform Bill r37
M.J. PETRY, Professor of Philosophy, Erasmus University,
Rotterdam
V
Vl Contents
Obligation, contract and exchange: on the significance of Hegel's
abstract right 159
SEYLA BENHABIB, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Boston
University
Hegel on work, ownership and citizenship I 78
ALAN RY AN, Reader in Politics, Oxford University and Fellow, New
College, Oxford
Subjectivity and civil society 197
GARBIS KOR TIAN, Professeur de Philosophie, Universite de Montreal
The dialectic of civil society 21 r
K.-H. ILTING
Hegel on identity and legitimation 227
RAYMOND PLANT, Professor of Political Theory, Southampton
University
Economy, utility and community in Hegel's theory of civil
2«
rocicty
A. S. WAL TON, Lecturer in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences, The
Open University
Nation, civil society, state: Hegelian sources of the Marxian
non-theory of nationality
Z. A. PELCZYNSKI
Notes 279
Select bibliography 312
PREFACE
The present volume is in some respects a sequel to Hegel's Political Philosophy:
Problems and Perspectives, first published by the Cambridge University Press
in r97r as a volume of essays commemorating the 200th anniversary of
Hegel's birth. However, what links the essays in this volume is not an occasion
but a common theme. The focus of the volume is the distinction, fundamental
to Hegel's political philosophy, between the state and civil society. The
distinction has been disputed, though on completely different grounds, by
marxism and liberalism. Marxism is heavily indebted to the concept of civil
society but it denies the Hegelian conception of the state as a political
community (the young Marx first dealt with the matter in On the Jewish
Question) and regards the state as an apparatus of coercion and class
exploitation superimposed on society. Liberalism, on the other hand, treats
the state and civil society as synonymous - a legal and institutional framework
for the pursuit of individual interests.
The exploration of the Hegelian distinction, then, throws into relief a
fundamental difference between the three great traditions of political
theorizing. At the same time it raises a number of questions about the relation
of Marx to Hegel and about the validity of the marxist critique of Hegel;
directly or indirectly nine of the essays in this volume are concerned with
these questions. Since Hegel's distinction has roots in the tradition of classical
political philosophy which goes back to Plato, four other essays consider
Hegel's relation to the thought of his predecessors. The remaining essays are
mainly concerned with the relevance of the Hegelian distinction to
contemporary issues in political theory and to some practical problems of
the modern capitalist welfare state. As in Hegel's Political Philosophy the essays
represent a wide spectrum of approaches and attitudes to Hegel, from
sympathetic to highly critical, but substantially agree on the importance of
Hegel's political and social thought.
None of the essays has been previously published in English, and all but
three have been specially written for this volume. The three, which originally
VII
Ylll Preface
appeared m print in other languages and have been translated for this
collection, are: Klaus Hartmann, 'Ideen zu einem neuen systematischen
Verstandnis der Hegelschen Rechtsphilosophie ', Perspektiven der Philosophie,
II ( 1976); Karl-Heinz rlting, 'Hcgels Begriff des Staats und die Kritik des
jungen Marx', Rivista di .filoso.fia nos. 7-8----<) (October 1977); Gabris Kortian,
'Remarqucs sur le rapport entre subjectivite et societe civil', Dialogue rx, 2
(1970). Thanks arc due to the editors of the three periodicals for permission
to translate and publish the articles in English.
Finally, [ wish to thank Mrs Carole Charlton and Mrs Susan Ousley for
typing the bulk of the collection, and also warmly thank my wife Denise
for her help with the final stages of editorial work.
Oxford, April 1984 Z. A. Pelczynski
ABBREVIATIONS
The works of Hegel and some other authors cited in the text of the
Introduction and the subsequent essays are abbreviated as follows:
GP Vorlesungen iiber die Geschichte de, Philosophie
HP, LHPh Lectures on the History of Philosophy
LPhWH Lectures on the Philosophy of World History
PhH Philosophy of History
PhR Philosophy of Right
PS Phenomenology of Spirit
PW Political Writings
Pol Aristotle's Politics
Rep Plato's Republic
IX
Introduction
The significance of Hegel's separation
of the state and civil society
Z. A. PELCZYNSKI
The distinction between the state and civil society was first made by Hegel
in print in his Philosophy ofR ight published in r 821.* Within the philosophical
mode of exposition which he adopted in his work, civil society (burgerliche
Gesellschaft) represented a 'stage' in the dialectical development from the
family to the state which contradicted the kind of ethical life found in the
human micro-community in order to be itself contradicted and overcome
(i.e. cancelled and pre~erved, aufgehoben) by the macro-community of the
politically independent, sovereign nation. While social life typical of civil
society was radically different from the ethical world of the family and, Hegel
believed, equally different from the public life of the state, it formed a
necessary element (or 'moment' in Hegel's terminology) within the totality
of rationally structured modern political community.
The conceptual separation of the state and civil society is one of the most
original features of Hegel's political and social philosophy although a highly
problematic one. The distinction has been both praised and attacked and its
significance assessed in diverse ways; even within the present volume a
number of contrasting interpretations and evaluations can be found. But in
discussing the implications of the distinction far more is at stake than simply
matters of Hegelian scholarship. The term 'biirgerliche Gesellschaft', which
also means 'bourgeois society', was taken over from Hegel by Marx and
became a fundamental concept of Marx's social theory, indeed in a way the
foundation of the theory. Of course before it became suitable for his purposes
Marx had to subject it to thorough criticism and modification, which went
chiefly into three directions. First, Marx questioned the philosophical con
text of the concept, the validity of the Hegelian form of the dialectic, and its
mystifying treatment of real human, social, historical facts and processes as
elements in the development of a metaphysical entity, the Spirit or the Idea.
*
This is the date on the title page of the original text, and the one normally attri
buted, There is evidence, however, that the book was published in I 820, the year given
in Hegel's preface.
I