Product Description

This book is a translation of a classic work of modern social and political thought, Elements of the Philosophy of Right. Hegel’s last major published work, is an attempt to systematize ethical theory, natural right, the philosophy of law, political theory and the sociology of the modern state into the framework of Hegel’s philosophy of history. Hegel’s work has been interpreted in radically different ways, influencing many political movements from far right to far left, and is widely perceived as central to the communication tradition in modern ethical, social and political thought. This edition includes extensive editorial material informing the reader of the historical background of Hegel’s text, and explaining his allusions to Roman law and other sources, making use of lecture materials which have only recently become available. The new translation is literal, readable and consistent, and will be informative and scholarly enough to serve the needs of students and specialists alike.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #123747 in Books
• Published on: 1991-10-25
• Original language: German
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 567 pages

Review
"Altogether...a work of sound scholarship and balanced judgement. It makes Hegel reliably accessible, and about as clear and readable as he can be. In addition, the critical apparatus makes their work into a valuable stepping stone for the study of the other texts and sources with which more advanced students and professional scholars must be concerned." Canadian Philosophical Reviews

Customer Reviews

An excellent edition of a classic
Since the Philosophy of Right is not the kind of book one might buy on impulse, i will restrict my comments to the quality of this edition of it. Unfortunately, i must concur with the blurb above; this is an excellent version of the text. The explanatory notes at the back of the book are full and useful and the introduction by Allen Wood is clear. It may, however, have been useful to have provided a commentary on the text in the manner of J. N. Findlay's on the Phenomenology - some sections are a little difficult, to say the least. This is probably asking too much though, so i would recommend instead that you read it in conjunction with an exposition of the text by a secondary author (Marcuse's 'Reason and Revolution' is in my opinion excellent, and while a little thin on detail at some points it can help to give an impression of the general drift of the arguments).

Rewarding
About the edition itself: I have a copy of this edition and of the translation by Knox. This edition is by far the best. In this edition, the 'additions' to each section (paragraph, to all intents and purposes) are placed immediately after the section to whicnh it relates, whilst the Knox edition places them at the back of the book. Since you will definitely need to read all of the editions to get to grips with the text, this makes this edition by far the best, as with it you don't need to waste time and become frustrated finding the relevent 'additions'.

About the text: If you've never read Hegel before, then you're in for a bit of a tough ride at first. Well, I say though, I really mean nightmare. I'd reccomend that you read the Hegel Dictionary either before you start the text (it was the set reading for my first week of a University course on Hegel), or use it as a reference as you go through, or both.

But don't let it put you off reading it. If you are at all interested in the philosophy of free will, punishment, morality, rights of a community with regard to the individual within the state, Marx's philosophy (which was, pretty much, a reaction against Hegel's philosophy) then this book is indispensible.

If you need a secondary text (which you probably will), then I'd recommend Charles Taylor's 'Hegel'. This book covers prety much the whole of Hegel's philosophical system, and to understand Hegel fully (or at least well, if 'fully' is impossible!) you do really need to have some knowledge of the rest of his system.

If you fancy a shorter text, then I'd go for Charles Talyor's 'Hegel and Modern Society'. This is basically two chapters of his 'Hegel' book with a bit added. It's good, but considering that most of this book is contained in his 'Hegel' and I think that 'Hegel' is cheaper, I'd go for that anyway.

Other than that, there is Franco's 'Hegel's Philosophy of Freedom', which is excellent.

Avineri is also excellent on Hegel, as good as Taylor, maybe.

Dudley Knowles provides a commentry merely on The Philosophy of Right, but I do not rate this as highly as the other mentioned, though if you can get hold of it in a library, I'd say it's worth photocopying some of his excellent explantatory diagrams of how Hegel views soeciety.

Finally, for something a bit different, you might want to have a look at Popper's 'The Open Society and Its Enemies: Volume 2'. Make your own mind up, but as I read it, this is the worst interpretation of Hegel's Philosophy of Right that I have ever come across. So, I reccomend that you read this only after reading the whole of Hegel's text. Otherwise, you might take some of Popper's criticisms on board and fail to get to (what I and most others that have read the text) obviously wrong conclusions about what Hegel was getting at. Best to read this in order to define what you think Hegel means with respect to it.

A Must Read
Hegel's Elements of the Philosophy of Right is a must read for anyone who is interested in philosophy or ethics. Hegel's ideas are very contemporary and are worth reading, and it offers a good critique of Kant's Categorical Imperative too. I am currently studying Hegel in my 2nd year at university, so it was defiantly worth buying a copy. I'd recommend that if you're interested in looking into Hegel to have a look at the Element's of the Philosophy of Right, however, I would also suggest you look at Kant too so that you can compare how radical Hegel's suggestions were for the time he was writing.