The Doctrine of Right, Duties and Religion for the Lower Class

[p. 232]

First Section
Doctrine of Right

Cross-reference: Abstract right in the Groundlines: § 34 ff., property § 41 ff., contract § 72 ff., wrong and punishment § 82 ff.

§ 1

One must consider 1. right in itself and 2. its subsistence in the society of the state.

First Chapter
Right

§ 2

According to right, merely the universal will is to be done, without regard to the intention or conviction of the individual, and right has the human being as its object only as a free being in general.

§ 3

Right consists in this, that each individual be respected and treated by the other as a free being, for only in so far does the free will have itself in the other as object and content.

Explanation. At the basis of right lies the freedom of the individual, and right consists in this, that I treat the other as a free being. Reason demands a rightful conduct. In his essence everyone is a free being. Human beings are differentiated by their particular conditions and peculiarities, but this difference does not concern the abstract will as such. In this they are the same, and in respecting the other one respects oneself. It follows from this that through the violation of the right of one individual all are violated in their right. This is a quite different sympathy from that with which one merely sympathises with the harm of another. For 1. the

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