The Sovereignty of the Metaphysical in Hegel’s Philosophy of Right

THE QUESTION of relation of metaphysics and politics in political thought has become a bone of contention for contemporary approaches to Hegel. This has not always been case. For example, in early years of 20th century, Hegel scholar Henry S. Macran deemed it permissible to suggest in his introductory comments to Science of Logic that, The fundamental opposition that runs through whole content and through whole history of philosophic thought is ... opposition between position and negation of Hegelian triad ... Nor is it merely a philosophical opposition; as every other kind of thinking is applied logic, there is no sphere of human life that escapes contrast. It is at bottom of distinction between socialist and individualist, imperialist and Little Englander, philosopher in general and man of affairs, devotee and worker, artist and man of science, idealistic art and realistic, experimental research and mere observation. (1) From this point of view, dialectical logic forms both necessary foundation for understanding of Hegelian corpus as well as dynamics underpinning workings of historical world of society and politics. Certainly, this position coheres with own which took metaphysical work of logic as a starting point for a philosophical system. Yet, under climate of Hegel scholarship prevailing since at least early 1960's, there has been an ongoing divergence from traditional approach in terms of relation and interdependence of respective philosophical and political theories. Much of this program is motivated by an intent to salvage political thought from critics who would associate him either with illiberalisms of Prussian statism on one hand or 20th century German nationalism on other. (2) At forefront of this scholarship, authors such as Pelczynski (3), Germino, (4) and Tunick (5) argue that political thought is wholly intelligible without reference to supposedly abstruse foundations of dialectical logic. As Pelczynski notes, Hegel's political thought can be read, understood and appreciated without having to come to terms with his metaphysics. (6) Germino takes this depreciation of logical thought still further, asserting that source of dilemma is specifically the not inconsiderable obscurity of dialectic [which] hinders rather than advances our appreciation of his contribution to political theory. (7) Authors such as Rosen (8) and Ward (9) have taken contrary position by asserting a development of theoretical necessity in transition from philosophical component of work to his political thought. On these accounts, his political thought must be understood as a dependent component of his philosophical corpus insofar as Hegel embraces Greek logos with primary intent of articulating whole. I hold that this contention over value of metaphysical underpinnings of his politics persists as a result of a lack of attention given to influence of fundamental philosophical problems out of which Hegel himself is working. While dialectics of Encyclopaedia Logic (10) have often been explored in their philosophical isolation, role of universalist logic driving politics as a response to core philosophical dilemmas has not. Though there have been a variety of valuable studies of interrelationship of Hegelian metaphysics and politics, philosophical problem of universal (11) and its becoming, one which Hegel witnesses in Logic as originating with Eleatic Being, has not been integrated into mapping of his political thought. (12) primary quest to fully articulate transformation of out of itself--a project initiated out of being as preliminary phase of both major and minor works on logic--and need to subsequently restore this universality through dialectical change so as to sustain a self-contained and self-generating conception of (13) should not be set aside in our estimations of politics. …