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181

|186| Transition of the Family into Civil Society

The family disintegrates, in a natural way, and essentially through the principle of personality, into a plurality of families, which conduct themselves, in general, as self-subsistent concrete persons, and thus externally toward one another. Or: the moments bound together in the unity of the family, as the ethical Idea still in its concept, must be released by it into self-subsistent reality — the stage of difference. Expressed at first abstractly, this yields the determination of particularity, which does indeed relate itself to universality, so that this universality is its — but only still inward — ground, and is, for that reason, present in the particular only in a formal way, merely shining into it. This relationship of reflection therefore represents, at first, the loss of the ethical; or, since the ethical, as essence, is necessarily shining (Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences, § 64 ff., § 81 ff.)1, it constitutes the world of appearance of the ethical — civil society.

The expansion of the family, as its passing over into another principle, is, in existence, in part the tranquil expansion of the family into a people, a nation, which thus has a common natural origin; in part the gathering of scattered family communities, either through dominating force, or through a voluntary union, brought about by connecting needs and by the interaction of their satisfaction.

  1. Encyclopaedia, 3rd ed. § 112 ff., § 131 ff. ↩︎

DE ES

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2 responses to “181”

  1. Eduard Gans (Additions) Avatar
    Eduard Gans (Additions)

    Here universality takes as its starting point the independence of particularity, and ethical life thus appears to be lost at this standpoint, for to consciousness it is properly the identity of the family that is the first, the divine, and that which commands duty. But now the relation arises that the particular is supposed to be what first determines me, and thus the ethical determination is suspended. But in this I am really only in error, for even as I believe I am holding fast to the particular, it is still the universal and the necessity of the connection that remains the first and essential thing: I am thus altogether at the stage of semblance, and since my particularity remains what determines me — that is, the end — I thereby serve universality, which in fact retains the ultimate power over me.

  2. Hegel (Simple) Avatar
    Hegel (Simple)

    § 181: From the family to society

    The family divides. One family becomes many families. Each stands on its own. They face each other as separate persons, externally, like neighbors.

    What happens to the unity?

    In the family, everything was one. Now it falls apart. Each pursues his own purposes. This looks like a loss of ethical life.

    But this is only an appearance. Whoever believes he only cares for himself serves the whole without noticing. The universal remains the real power, even when each thinks only of himself. We call this world civil society. It is the world in which ethical life appears, but scattered.

    How does it arise in history?

    Either a family grows peacefully into a people. Then all share one origin. Or scattered families come together. They do this through force, or because they need each other and trade with each other.

    Summary: The family breaks up into many families that stand on their own. Each pursues its own purposes. So civil society arises, in which the unity only seems lost.

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