Elements of the Philosophy of Right

The Elements of the Philosophy of law or natural law and political science in the floor plans are published in the October 1820 work by the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. It was originally intended as an accompanying textbook to Hegel's lectures on the philosophy of law at the University of Berlin. It is considered a centralized view of Hegel's philosophy of objective spirit next to the relevant section of his encyclopedia and various lecture notes.

What Hegel summarizes the " Philosophy of Right ", corresponds to the content of what he called " objective spirit ", ie the realization of the free will of the social realm. The term " law " is very broad and includes everything that the coexistence mutually appreciative individuals allows as generalized system of standards and thereby according to Hegel's conception only made possible the realization of freedom of the will. Accordingly, the basic concept of the basic lines of the " existence of free will " is. This existence has several moments, so it is a right of the " abstract right " ( corresponds to what is commonly taken under natural law ), the " morality " (ie, the supposedly autonomous action ), and finally the " morality " that is, of social orders where the people with the right options for action are given concrete way. Central to this representation is the representation of a political order in which, for Hegel, freedom is fully accomplished.

Preface

The preface is one of the famous Hegelian texts, which is due to esp. following epigram.

Controversial epigram

" What is rational is real; and what is real is rational. "

Reason and reality are explicitly equated. The real is rational because it has emerged from its concept. The rational is real because it is the constant in existence. Conversely, not everything that exists, even reasonable. There are existing in much of what is subject to chance or human arbitrariness. The Random and Arbitrary not corresponds to the concept.

The Owl of Minerva

In the preface to Hegel is also expressed on the relationship of the philosopher to social reality:

" ...; the owl of Minerva begins with the falling of the dusk flight. "

The Roman goddess Minerva as well as the Greek Athena were the guardians of wisdom and had a mythological attribute the bird of wisdom, the nocturnal owl. This metaphor by a knowledge of social relations is therefore only possible after their reality has unfolded. So the knowledge closes an era and not the reasons for it about.

Many interpretations view, therefore, in the late work of Hegel, which also includes the right philosophy is, a departure from the earlier position that the philosophy was to establish a new era.

Content, structure of the work

Hegel's Philosophy of Law has a tripartite structure, which is typical of many of his works.