Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T11:20:23.120Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Hegel's Critique of Liberalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Steven B. Smith*
Affiliation:
Yale University

Abstract

A recent and perhaps surprising development in political theory has been the revival of neo-Kantian liberalism, with its doctrines of the neutral state and equal concern and respect. Critics of liberalism have suggested, however, that Kantian notions of rights and rationality are too thin a foundation on which to build satisfactory forms of community and political life. In this paper I examine the critique of rights-based liberalism by returning to the philosophy of Hegel. Hegel's position, I suggest, provides us with a much needed middle ground between liberalism and its contemporary critics. Like the modern communitarians he is critical of the individualistic and ahistorical conceptions of rights underlying the liberal polity, but like many liberals he is skeptical of the claims to recreate a democratic, participatory Gemeinschaft that would leave citizens defenseless before their particular communities. I conclude that like Montesquieu before him and Tocqueville after, Hegel looked to the “corporations” or intermediary associations to skirt the extremes of the market place and civic virtue.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Althusser, Louis. 1959. Montesquieu: politique et l'histoire. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah. 1965. On Revolution. New York: Viking Press.Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah. 1958. The Human Condition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Avineri, Shlomo. 1972. Hegel's Theory of the Modern State. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Barry, Brian. 1978. Sociologists, Economists, and Democracy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Chamley, Paul. 1963. Economie politique et philosophie chez Steuart et Hegel. Paris: Dalloz.Google Scholar
Dworkin, Ronald. 1977. Taking Rights Seriously. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Fishkin, James S. 1984. Defending Equality: A View from the Cave. Michigan Law Review, 82: 755–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gellner, Ernest. 1974. The Legitimation of Belief. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Habermas, Jürgen. 1974. Theory and Practice. Viertel, John, trans. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. 1952. Briefe von und an Hegel. 3 vols. Hoffmeister, Johannes, ed. Hamburg: Felix Meiner.Google Scholar
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. 1955. Lectures on the History of Philosophy. 3 vols. Haldane, E. S. and Simson, F. H., trans. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. 1956. The Philosophy of History. Sibree, J., trans. New York: Dover.Google Scholar
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. 1964. Political Writings. Knox, T. M., trans. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. 1966. The Phenomenology of Mind. Baille, J. B., trans. London: George Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. 1969. Jenaer Realphilosophie: Vorlesungsmanuskripte zur Philosophie der Natur und des Geistes von 1805–1806. Hoffmeister, Johannes, ed. Hamburg: Felix Meiner.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. 1971. Early Theological Writings. Knox, T. M., trans. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. 1972. The Philosophy of Right. Knox, T. M., trans. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. 1975. On the Scientific Ways of Treating Natural Law. Knox, T. M., trans. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. 1979. System of Ethical Life and First Philosophy of Spirit. Harris, H. S. and Knox, T. M., trans. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Hobbes, Thomas. 1977. Leviathan. Oakeshott, Michael, ed. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Hollis, Martin and Nell, Edward J.. 1975. Rational Economic Man. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hyppolite, Jean. 1969. Studies in Marx and Hegel. O'Neill, John, trans. London: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel. 1956. The Critique of Practical Reason. Beck, Lewis White, trans. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel. 1965. The Critique of Pure Reason. Smith, Norman Kemp, trans. New York: St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel. 1964. Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals. Paton, H. J., trans. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel. 1977. Political Writings. Nisbet, H. B., trans. Reiss, Hans, ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lukács, Georg. 1975. The Young Hegel: Studies in the Relations between Dialectics and Economics. Livingstone, Rodney, trans. London: Merlin Press.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, Alasdair. 1981. After Virtue. Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame University Press.Google Scholar
Montesquieu, Baron de. 1949. The Spirit of the Laws. Nugent, Thomas, trans. New York: Hafner.Google Scholar
Mosher, Michael. 1984. The Particulars of a Universal Politics: Hegel's Adaptation of Montesquieu's Typology. American Political Science Review, 78:179–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nietzsche, Friedrich. 1957. The Use and Abuse of History. Collins, Adrian, trans. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.Google Scholar
Nozick, Robert. 1974. Anarchy, State, and Utopia. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Plant, Raymond. 1973. Hegel. London: George Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Plant, Raymond. 1977. Hegel and Political Economy. New Left Review, 103–104:79–92, 103–13.Google Scholar
Planty-Bonjour, Guy. 1974. L'esprit générate d'une nation selon Montesquieu et le “Volksgeist” hégélienne. In d'Hondt, Jacques, ed., Hegel et le siècle des lumières. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.Google Scholar
Rawls, John. 1971. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riedel, Manfred. 1969. Studien zu Hegels Rechtsphilosophie. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.Google Scholar
Ritter, Joachim. 1972. Hegel und die Franzöischen Revolution. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.Google Scholar
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 1964. The First and Second Discourses. Masters, Roger D. and Masters, Judith R., trans. New York: St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 1978. On the Social Contract. Masters, Judith R., trans. Masters, Roger D., ed. New York: St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Salkever, Steven. 1974. Virtue, Obligation, and Politics. American Political Science Review, 68:7892.Google Scholar
Sandel, Michael. 1982. Liberalism and the Limits of Justice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Shklar, Judith. 1976. Freedom and Independence: A Study of Hegel's Phenomenology of Mind. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Shklar, Judith. 1984. Ordinary Vices. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Steven B. 1983. Hegel's Views on War, the State, and International Relations. American Political Science Review, 77:624–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strauss, Leo. 1953. Natural Right and History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, Charles. 1979. Hegel and Modern Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walzer, Michael. 1983. Spheres of Justice: A Defense of Pluralism and Equality. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Weber, Max. 1949. The Methodology of the Social Sciences. Shils, Edward A. and Finch, Henry A., trans. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.