Idealism, Politics and History: Sources of Hegelian Thought

388 Pages·1969·21.829 MB·English

by  George Armstrong Kelly

IDEALISPMO,L ITICS
ANDH ISTORY
SOURCOEFSH EGELITAHNO UGHT
BY
GEORGAER MSTROKNEGL LY
..41#11,1, Pr,jiuor ofP oli1i11
Br•11tl,i1 U11lwm11
CAMBRIDGE
ATT HEU NIVERSPIRTEYS S
Cam/,ridge Studies in the History and Theory ofP olities
!DITOllS
COWLING
MAURICE
G,R.ELTON
E, KEDOUR.IE
J,R.,POLE
WALTER ULLMANN
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PRO OMNIBUS ANIMAE SPIRITUSQUE
MAGISTRIS
CONTENTS
Prefa&e page x
PAR.T ONE. INTRODUCTION I
PART TWO, J.-J. ROUSSEAU: THE LAND OF
CHIMERAS AND THE LAND OP PREJUDICES
1 Histo , anti-histo and the moral ego 25
ry ry
A Tirmrue dennefdut uraen tdlp uo lemic
agahinos111tle d25g e
B Ap henomenology odefs pa35ir
2 Images of integration 46
A 'Emitlelm'u&: y cloimpaegd4e6i &
B Tiu' SoCconlriacatl't :li um aogfe
legma«'la lit5y1
c 'Corsietalu', :u.s tomary-defen·siim5oa1eg e
D Ordera ndids order64
PART THREE. IMMANUEL KANT: THE
RATIONALIZATION OF THE CHIMER.A
1 Introduction: The German political consciousness 5
7
A RoussaentadluG u erm anr ea&tttouh me
Enught1mmm5t
B Tiug oodsGrf e ece
78
c TiuF ren&Rhtv0 lutenitoersGn t11114 n thought
anhdis tor83y
2 Morality, knowledge and historical vision 89
A KanatnR do usse8ga u
e 'CriAtmi&bai/'o a100len &e
3 Humanity, time and freedom 105
A Fr'IPeie/1 1o6
B Tiudia lectico tfim aen frde edo1m 13
c Tiuindivid ual antdhs eo c1i17 al
4 The ambivalence of progress 126
A Kandotc'tsro Iinfdee a 1s26
B Thaen throspuhoslotgic1r3a3a lt e
c Finaliatnuydl titruKy
139
vii
Contents
S Probolpofel msi tics
1t. Utopu, ,,,,, ,Juii4s,,, 146
e Revolutum twl ,9fllimlity 153
6 Thtee leoolpfogyr acrtieasocaln 159
A Tiu strwtt1T1 and spirit ofle gality 159
B T1111lag1 and lustory 170
c Philosoplutal ttmsmunitation 174
D A "'""""'Y: lustory and &on1'ioumess 177
PAR.T FOUR.. J. G. FICHTE: THE CHIMERA
DOGMATIZED
1 FicIhnttreo:d aunctdtien odne ncies 181
A Fichte and Rousseau 181
e Aaion """ intellm 186
c Apropos tlu 'Wissens,haftslel,re' 189
D Triumph and e,upse 193
2 Metaphaynsicodcsn sciousn� 200
1t. Plutu,mmoloD and fo,alism 200
e Tiu Elimination of the 'Dmg-a•si&I,' 201
c The tleduaion of tons&iou.mess 205
D Phi/4sopl,y and lift 210
E Plutu,mmolov and ultal p,dagov 213
3 Legality anmdo rality 218
A ltltalism, ,oraraatuilism and so,itty 218
e The legal and moral ,ommunitits 222
c The ultalist instnmrmtal state 226
4 History as logic: thloegic of history 233
A History and tons&iousness 233
B History as ruhjtttiw self-drotlop,,u,,t of tlu ltlta 237
c History and the ttm,p,dsory state 242
S c.osmic nationalism 248
A Nation and &0S1110polis: introdu&tory 2-+8
e The Mtum-state as """"'" "'"'""""'J: transition 250
c The Gmnanie spirit twl the f,JJMss oft itne 256
D Th 'Rem' : 111"41 is lustory 1111/uu is a GmMn 1 26o
6 Educaatinotdnhfu et ucormmeu nity 26g
A 1"'4gt one: tlu 'Gtkhrt,,,,.,puh/ii' 269
e !matt hDo: the model ulwol 271
C To11111rtl the petlago�al slate 274
vw
Contents
D Rrdership 278
E EdU&atum and ,om·ion 281
, Finlluty and ultmuuy ,onfasetl 282
PAllT FIVE. G. W. F. HEGEL: THE CHIMER.A
,
'CANCELLED AND PRESERVED
I H edle ntihespe o teonftcy hfu et ure
eg
A Ideo/Jstf orms of the ,himtra
z8g
B Re,� 296
c Hegel t1gllfflSt tr11n.sm,dentt1l idealsim 301
D Pout�t1Ife etl/,a&le 3o6
E ldeo,entrism 309
2 A political context 33
1
A Time and histt>ry 313
e 'Vernunftstw' versus 'Verstandesstut' 323
c Mastery and slavery 333
D 'Bi/dung' 341
E Philosophy and ufe 348
PAllT SIL EPILOGUE: THE FUTURE
UNREDEEMED
BIBLIOGllAPHY
INDEX
IX
PREFACE
Happily there is no need to compliment data processing centres
and munificent foundations on their timely support. Generous
friends and wise teachers have meant all. The setting of my own
'phenomenology' has been Harvard University; its masters were
Louis Hartz, who first whetted my appetite for political phil<l'iOphy,
and Judith N. Shklar, who sustained and refined it. My debt to
them both is profound. Need I say, in acknowledging their influence
with more than gratitude, that the positions taken here must not be
imputed to them ? While a student I also benefited from the
insights of John Rawls and Harvey C. Mans.6dd, Jr. on idealist
political philosophy. A longtime friend Eugene C. Black, my present
faculty colleague at Brandeis University, helped me with an earlier
version of this manusaipt. And Mrs. Shklar was an inspired source
of suggestion as I laboured to reshape the essay.
Audr Ball, Oaire Murray, Patricia Fleming, and Sally Cox
ey
steadfastly saw the typing along; I could not wish for better col­
laborators. My wife and children knew when to console me and
were sportsmanlike enough to tolerate the march of Abstract Nouns
through the house.
Some of the arguments and analyses presented here made earlier
and differently garbed appearances, notably: 'Notes on Hegel's
"Lordship and Bondage"', The Reviea, ofM etaphysits (June 1g66);
'Rousseau, Kant and History', Journal of the History of Ideas
(July 1968); 'The Structure and Spirit of Legality in Kant',
The JourMl of Politits (May 1969); and my aitical introduction to
Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Addresses to the German Nation (New
York; Harper Torchbooks, 1968). I thank these editors and pub­
lishers collectively for permission to re� my wares. The
Presses Universitaircs Fran�iscs have kindly allowed me to repro­
duce Jules Vuillemin's chart of Fichte's genesis of the consciousness
on page :u 5. G.A.K..
Cambridge, Massachusetts
October 1¢8
X
PART ONE
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Between the Indian summer of the an&im r! ime and the evanescent
i
'restoration' of post-Revolutionary continental Europe perceptions
of the upwardly mobile intellectual� took a decisive turn from
nostalgia to anticipation, from criticism to intimations of d mism.
yna
When Boulanger wrote in the Eneydopedia that 'the mind of men
living in civilized states has been more or less the same throughout
the ages; the difference lies only in the way it is used',1 he was
reflecting the Enlightenment's confidence in fixed nature, man's
place in the world, and the causal reliability of the universe. But
not half a century later, beyond the Revolution, that natural posture
of harmony is shattered; a Romantic like Novalis can write of recent
events as the 'stirrings of a puberty crisis'.1
There are many ways of tracing this development. An obvious
one is through the impact of the events themselves: the traditional
province of the historian. Another way is to keep events on the margin
while dwelling chiefly on their relation to what may be called the
historical consciousness, and by determining how conceptions of
world history govern the interpretation of these events. By
'historical consciousness' I mean a sequential explanation of human
and natural purpose, oriented toward collective human need and
desi , and bridging with its implicit tim the gap between
gn e-span
cosmological and logical visions of man's destiny. The work that
follows is an attempt of the latter sort. Because it is not itself in­
tended as an essay in philosophical history, but rather as an empiri­
cal treatment of the range and development of a number of basic
themes, the arguments and methods should be made as clear as pos­
sible at the outset. That is the task of this introduction, taken at
the risk of assuming the results of some of the investigations that
follow.
1 Article 'Prodile', Ew1'�1i& n Diaion,dr, ,IIUllfflll us •rts, us uinr&u et us
.him (17"oll. Puia, 1751-65), xm,-423.
1 <s �-.
a Noftlis, Blmnutlliik, DO. 105, in C. Scdig (ed.), G,,._r,, Werle Herrli­
berg-Zarich, 1943), u, J6.
I