Theories of the Ethical Government Vs. Social Contract: A Practical View of the State Through Hegel's Point of View and His Critiques of Classical Liberalism

Abstract

IntroductionHegel is a philosopher who studies the concept of the state with his multifaceted philosophy and his special methodology. On one hand, he criticizes the views of different schools of thought about this concept and believes that the government is not a mechanism to maintain peace, enforce rights, or promote benefits beyond its own existence, and only in this capacity can it be recognized by everyone as a right. On the other hand, in his theory, the divine and intrinsically purposive government is trying to incorporate all the desirable features of these schools, despite all these criticisms. notwithstanding this paradox, this research, whose sources have been collected through the library research method and descriptive-analytical study, aims to prove the hypothesis that the Hegelian state emerges from within the traditional liberal and democratic state-building philosophies in a special and distinct way. It is trying to answer the question “What are the characteristics of the ideal state in Hegel's view, In a practical look at the political philosophy of the state?”, The results show, while proving the hypothesis; that contrary to the extreme collectivism of Rousseau and the abstract individualism of Lockean liberalism, Hegel's state is ‘a reasonable and inevitable institution of society that everyone must recognize its by force and accept its obedience’. Research Question(s)What are the characteristics of the ideal state in Hegel's view? Literature ReviewSeveral research papers have been published Related to the subject of the research, including; Zahra Vashqani Farahani's thesis titled: "State Theory in Hegel's Political Philosophy" published by the Faculty of Literature and Humanities of the Islamic Azad University (Central Tehran Branch), as well as an article titled "The Importance of Hegelian Separation, State and Civil Society" written by Azim Rahin, Prepared and published in No. (1.2) of Social Sciences Quarterly. However, the distinct feature of this research is the examination of Hegel's paradigmatic view of the government, which is in many ways against or in favor of democracy and liberalism. MethodologyConsidering that research in most humanities disciplines is mainly focused on theoretical solutions, the present study has used a library research method to collect the desired data and examines the data with a descriptive-analytical method. ConclusionHegel's philosophy, methodology, and valuable critiques present an outlook that thinks about modernity, instead of being oriented towards the Enlightenment era of his time. Because, basically, from Hegel's point of view, modernity is a bridge in the evolution of the soul towards freedom, and in this way, the self-awareness of the soul is the most important characteristic of the new era. In summary, for the purposes of this research and its main question, what is certain is that Hegel rejects the political theory of social contract that philosophers such as Locke and Rousseau established and views them as inefficient abstract concepts and, by rejecting the abstract idealism of "Reason" and the empiricism of "History" as an independent and durable ground for authority, established a dialectical relationship between reason and history and thereby resolved some of the contradictions raised in the state's founding phase. He also, based the political right on having an independent nature from the state and supports the concept of political right where it maintains its idealistic aspect, but is based on a certain historical era. On the other hand, even though Hegel criticizes the extreme collectivism of Rousseau and the abstract individualism of Lockean liberalism, his divine and intrinsically purposive government tries to incorporate all the desirable features of these schools and support them. Hegel's goal was to achieve the desired political power system for Germany, and so in this way, he presented his government specially and distinctly from the democratic and liberal state-building philosophies of his time.But what are the characteristics of Hegel's ideal government? The key to understanding this question lies in the ideal concept of political right in Hegel's belief and his opinion about the inherent rationality of the state. From Hegel's point of view, the state is the manifestation of realized freedom and the perfect ethical life. Therefore, the state is an ethical soul that emerges in the form of an essential will by becoming more transparent and definite. Therefore, the state is nothing but "the action of the spirit in the world" realized in a self-conscious form. But since the soul in Hegel's philosophy has an absolute, and even divine essence, according to Hegel's definition, the state is God's will in the world. Such a government is not a responsible or parliamentary government, and this was at a time when the belief in a responsible government was considered the most important feature of 19th-century liberalism. Overall, by studying the philosophy of rights that Hegel talks about, it cannot be said that he does not explicitly accept responsible government, nor can it be said that he explicitly rejected such a government.

Keywords

• friedrich hegel
• state
• freedom
• right