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Philosophy of Right

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

S. W. Dyde (1896)

Hegel's Elements of the Philosophy of Right (Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts, 1821) is his mature political philosophy and the fullest statement of his theory of ethical and political life. Proceeding dialectically from abstract right (property and contract) through morality (conscience and the good) to ethical life (Sittlichkeit)—the family, civil society, and the state—it argues that freedom is realized not in the isolated individual but in the rational institutions of a modern community. Famous for the dictum that 'what is rational is actual,' it profoundly shaped later political thought, including Marx. The translation is S. W. Dyde's of 1896.

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Contents

  1. Author's Preface
  2. Introduction
  3. First Part: Abstract Right
    1. First Section: Property
      1. A. The Act of Possession
      2. B. Use of the Object
      3. C. Relinquishment of Property
    2. Second Section: Contract
    3. Third Section: Wrong
      1. A. Unpremeditated Wrong
      2. B. Fraud
      3. C. Violence and Crime
    4. Transition from Right to Morality
  4. Second Part: Morality
    1. First Section: Purpose and Responsibility
    2. Second Section: Intention and Well-being
    3. Third Section: The Good and Conscience
    4. Transition from Morality to the Ethical System
  5. Third Part: The Ethical System
    1. First Section: The Family
      1. A. Marriage
      2. B. The Family Means
      3. C. Education of the Children and Dissolution of the Family
    2. Transition of the Family into the Civic Community
    3. Second Section: The Civic Community
      1. A. The System of Wants
        1. (a) Want and its Satisfaction
        2. (b) Labour
        3. (c) Wealth
      2. B. Administration of Justice
        1. (a) Right as Law
        2. (b) Law as Incorporated
        3. (c) The Court of Justice
      3. C. Police and Corporation
        1. (a) Police
        2. (b) The Corporation
    4. Third Section: The State
      1. A. Internal Polity
        1. I. Internal Constitution
        2. A. The Function of the Prince
        3. B. The Executive
        4. C. The Legislature
        5. II. External Sovereignty
      2. B. International Law
      3. C. World-History