Philosophy of Right by Epicurus Epicurus

Philosophy of Right by Epicurus Epicurus

Complete and unabridged, this edition of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's 1821 classic offers a comprehensive view of the philosopher's influential system. In the Philosophy of Right, Hegel applies his most important concept the dialectics to law, rights, morality, the family, economics, and the state. The last of Hegel's works to be published in his lifetime, this volume combines moral and political philosophy to form a sociologic view dominated by the idea of the state. Hegel defines universal right as the synthesis between the thesis of an individual acting in accordance with the law and the occasional conflict of an antithetical desire to follow private convictions. The state, he declares, must permit individuals to satisfy both demands, thereby realizing social harmony and prosperity--the perfect synthesis. Further, Hegel renounces his formerly favorable assessment of the French Revolution and rejects the republican form of government, suggesting instead an idealized form of a constitutional monarchy, in which ultimate power rests with the sovereign.

GEORG WILHELM FRIEDRICH HEGEL was born in Stuttgart on August 27, 1770, and during his early life the world witnessed revolutions in America and France as well as the following of Germany's Romantic movement. Born in the same year as Hegel were Friedrich Hü¾¦˜¼lderlin, Germany's greatest lyric poet, and the composer Ludwig van Beethoven.

After graduating from Stuttgart's Latin School, Hegel entered the University of Tü¾˜¶˜¼bingen to study the Greek classics and theology. Hegel's theological studies decisively shaped the development of his philosophical outlook. One of his earliest works, The Life of Jesus (1795), stressed the ethics of Christ's teaching while rejecting divine miracles. Later, in The Spirit of Christianity (1799), Hegel spoke as a mystic expressing his vision in philosophical rather than theo-logical terms.
Central to Hegel's philosophy was the concept of the Geist, or spirit--a term inspired by Hegel's theological training. This spirit is a real, concrete, objective force that remains one, yet is par-ticularized as spirits of specific nations and impersonated in particular individuals as the Weltgeist, or World Spirit.

In the Hegelian philosophy of the world, history occupies a special place, for it is in history that the World Spirit progresses toward self-consciousness. This is seen by Hegel as the gradual realization of freedom, from that of a single leader in the autocratic governments of antiquity to the liberty enjoyed by all in modern constitutional systems. Hegel asserted that this process of the development and realization of the spirit was the justification of God in history. Hegel's Philosophy of History, based on a series of lectures delivered in 1822 and later, was compiled and published posthu-mously by his son. It confers upon leaders of nations a position of absolute freedom: whatever they consider necessary to realize their nation's world-historical mission is justified. Hegel's ideas had a profound influence, for better or worse, on later philosophers, notably Karl Marx who, in the preface to the second edition of Das Kapital, called himself a pupil of that mighty thinker, although Marx's materialism contrasted dramatically with Hegel's idealism. The Hegelian concept of the dialectic was, however, to be a funda-mental component of Marxism.

Georg Friedrich Hegel's other works include The Phenome-nology of the Spirit (1807), The Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences (1817), and Philosophy of Right and Law (1820). He died in Berlin on November 14, 1831.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780486445632
ISBN 10	0486445631
Title	Philosophy of Right
Author	Epicurus Epicurus
Series	Dover Philosophical Classics
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Dover Publications Inc.
Year published	2005-12-30
Number of pages	272
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.