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260

A. Internal Constitutional Law

The state is the actuality of concrete freedom; but concrete freedom consists in this, that personal individuality and its particular interests not only achieve their complete development and gain recognition of their right for themselves (within the system of the family and of civil society), but also, on the one hand, pass over of their own accord into the interest of the universal, and, on the other, knowingly and willingly recognize this universal interest even as their own substantial spirit, and are active for it as their ultimate end — so that the universal neither holds good nor is accomplished without particular interest, knowledge, and will, nor do individuals live merely for the latter as private persons without at the same time willing the universal in and for itself and being consciously active for that end. The principle of modern states has this immense strength and depth: that it allows the principle of subjectivity to perfect itself into the self-sufficient extreme of personal particularity, and at the same time brings it back to substantial unity, thereby preserving that unity within subjectivity itself.

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4 responses to “260”

  1. Hegel (Encyclopedia 1817) Avatar
    Hegel (Encyclopedia 1817)

    Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences in Outline (1817), § 436:

    § 436. The universal work of substance, in relation to the extreme of singularity, consists in a twofold labor: on the one hand, to preserve them as persons, and thus to make right into necessary actuality and the vengeance for the infinite violation of it into punishment, and then to further their welfare — which each at first looks after for himself, but which absolutely has a universal side; and, on the other hand, to lead both of these, together with the entire disposition and activity of the individual, who strives to be a center for himself, back into the life of the universal substance, and in this sense, as a free power, also to curtail those first spheres.

  2. Hegel (Encyclopedia 1827) Avatar
    Hegel (Encyclopedia 1827)

    Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences in Outline (1827), § 537:

    § 537. The essence of the state is the universal in and for itself, of willing, the rational element of the will, but, as knowing and activating itself, is simply subjectivity, and, as actuality, one individual. Its work in general consists, in relation to the extreme of singularity as the multitude of individuals, in the twofold: on the one hand, to preserve them as persons, and thus to make right into necessary actuality, and then to further their welfare — which each at first attends to for himself, but which absolutely has a universal side — to protect the family and to guide civil society; on the other hand, however, to lead both of these, together with the entire disposition and activity of the individual, who strives to be a center for himself, back into the life of the universal substance, and in this sense, as a free power, to curtail those spheres subordinate to it.

  3. Hegel (Encyclopedia 1830) Avatar
    Hegel (Encyclopedia 1830)

    Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences in Outline (1830), § 537:

    § 537. The essence of the state is the universal in and for itself, the rational element of the will, but, as knowing and activating itself, simply subjectivity, and, as actuality, one individual. Its work in general consists, in relation to the extreme of singularity as the multitude of individuals, in the twofold: on the one hand, to preserve them as persons, and thus to make right into necessary actuality, and then to further their welfare, which each at first attends to for himself but which absolutely has a universal side, to protect the family and to guide civil society — on the other hand, however, to lead both of these, together with the entire disposition and activity of the individual, as one who strives to be a center for himself, back into the life of the universal substance, and in this sense, as a free power, to curtail those spheres subordinate to it and to preserve them in substantial immanence.

  4. Eduard Gans (Additions) Avatar
    Eduard Gans (Additions)

    The idea of the state in modern times has the peculiarity that the state is the actualization of freedom not according to subjective caprice, but according to the concept of the will, that is, according to its universality and divinity. The imperfect states are those in which the idea of the state is still enveloped and where its particular determinations have not attained free independence. In the states of classical antiquity, universality was indeed already present, but particularity had not yet been unbound and set free and led back to universality, that is, to the universal end of the whole. The essence of the modern state is that the universal be bound up with the full freedom of particularity and with the well-being of individuals, so that the interest of family and civil society must gather itself into the state, but that the universality of the end can advance only along with the particular’s own knowledge and will, which must retain its right. The universal must therefore be actively at work, while subjectivity, on the other side, must be developed wholly and vitally. Only through the fact that both moments subsist in their full strength can the state be regarded as articulated and truly organized.

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