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357

3. The Roman Realm

In this realm, the differentiation is consummated into an infinite laceration of ethical life, into the extremes of personal private self-consciousness, on the one hand, and abstract universality, on the other. The opposition, proceeding from the substantial outlook of an aristocracy set against the principle of free personality in democratic form, develops on the former side into superstition and the assertion of cold, rapacious power, and on the latter into the corruption of a rabble; and the dissolution of the whole ends in universal misfortune and the death of ethical life, in which the individualities of the nations die out into the unity of a pantheon, and all individuals sink down into private persons and equals endowed with formal right — a condition now held together only by an abstract caprice driving itself toward monstrous excess.

DE ES

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2 responses to “357”

  1. Hegel (Natural Right Essay 1802) Avatar
    Hegel (Natural Right Essay 1802)

    Hegel, On the Scientific Ways of Treating Natural Right (Critical Journal of Philosophy, vol. 2, part 2, 1802), p. 458:

    […] They received laws and commanders from the will of their monarch, and the descendants of the boldest chieftains were content with the rank of citizens and subjects; the more highly aspiring spirits gathered round the standard of the emperors; and the abandoned provinces, deprived of political strength or unity, sank imperceptibly into the dull indifference of private life.

  2. Hegel (Simple) Avatar
    Hegel (Simple)

    § 357: The Roman realm

    In the Roman realm ethical life tears apart.

    Which extremes?

    On one side the private consciousness of the single person. On the other an abstract universality.

    How does it go?

    It begins with the struggle between aristocracy and democracy. One side turns into superstition and cold, greedy power. The other decays into a rabble.

    The end:

    The whole dissolves in general misfortune. Ethical life dies. The spirits of the nations die out in a shared pantheon. All become private persons, equal in formal right. Only a boundless arbitrary will still holds them together.

    Summary: In the Roman realm ethical life tears apart into private persons and abstract universality. It ends in the death of ethical life. Only arbitrary will still holds the equals together.

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