Comments on: 175

By: Hegel (Simple)

Hegel (Simple) — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 10:55:48 +0000

§ 175: The aim of upbringing

Children are free in themselves. They belong to no one as things, not even to their parents.

What should upbringing achieve?

Two things.

First, the child should experience ethical life first as a feeling. It should grow up in love, trust and obedience. This is the ground on which its later ethical life stands. Right at the start, the mother is important for this.

Second, the child should learn to stand on its own. It should grow into a free person. And one day it should be able to leave the family.

The Romans:

In ancient Rome, children were subject to the father like slaves. This is one of the greatest stains on that law. It wounds ethical life where its life is most tender.

The wish to grow up:

Children feel for themselves that they are not yet complete. They want to grow up. They sense that the world of adults is higher. Upbringing must feed this wish.

Against playful upbringing:

Some want to teach everything through play. They make serious things childish. In this way they take the childish as something complete. This does harm. The children lose interest in serious things. They despise the adults who make themselves childish in front of them. And they become vain.

Summary: Children are free and belong to no one as things. Upbringing should first let them grow up in love and then help them stand on their own. Playful upbringing misses their wish to grow up.

By: Eduard Gans (Additions)

Eduard Gans (Additions) — Wed, 29 May 1833 13:45:34 +0000

As a child, the human being must have lived within the circle of love and trust with his parents, and the rational must appear in him as his own most intimate subjectivity. In the earliest period, the mother's upbringing is especially important, for ethical life must be planted in the child as feeling. It should be noted that, on the whole, children love their parents less than parents love their children, for children move toward independence and grow stronger, thus leaving their parents behind them, while the parents possess in their children the objective embodiment of their union.

By: Hegel (Notes)

Hegel (Notes) — Thu, 06 Feb 1823 08:06:32 +0000

– that the children enjoyed the love of their parents, lived within it – taking children away from bad parents in order to raise [them] better themselves, away from ruin – But the parents' love for the children is only one [kind] – natural bond – natural unity – the child drinks at the mother's breast – receives everything from them, without thanks, without consciousness – This unity with human beings felt in this way – i.e. lived in subjectivity as this [particular one], habit – feeling of love, – of this oneness with human beings made into nature – ethical elements laid into the subject, taking root in him as this [individual] –
Strict right – and duty – the subject [becoming] a person
– freedom – and citizen of the state.