Comments on: 316 https://grundlinien.de/en/316/ Thu, 24 Sep 2026 11:01:03 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.3 By: Hegel (Simple) https://grundlinien.de/en/316/#comment-3756 Thu, 24 Sep 2026 11:01:03 +0000 https://grundlinien.de/?p=901012#comment-3756 § 316: Public opinion

Every individual has his view about universal affairs. He judges, holds opinions and gives advice. What comes together in this way we call public opinion.

What does it contain?

Two things, and both at once. The true and essential. And the merely personal, particular side of the many opinions. So public opinion is a contradiction in itself.

Its power:

It is the unordered way in which a people shows what it wants and thinks. At all times it was a great power. Today especially. What should count no longer counts through force, and hardly through habit. It counts through insight and reasons.

Summary: Public opinion is the sum of the views of the many. In it the true and the merely personal mix together. Today it is a great power.

]]> By: Eduard Gans (Additions) https://grundlinien.de/en/316/#comment-2247 Wed, 29 May 1833 14:24:55 +0000 https://grundlinien.de/?p=901012#comment-2247 Public opinion is the unorganized way in which what a people wills and thinks makes itself known. What actually asserts itself in the state must, of course, operate in an organic way, and this is the case in the constitution. But at all times public opinion has been a great power, and it is so especially in our time, where the principle of subjective freedom has this importance and significance. What is now to hold good no longer holds good through force, little through custom and habit, but rather through insight and reasons.

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