PLEASE NOTE this is a sample reading list for the 2013-14 academic
year – precise seminar content may change from year to year.
Week 1
General introduction: The Preface to Hegel’s Elements of the Philosophy of Right
Topics: Diverging interpretations of the political standpoint of Hegel’s Philosophy ofRight; the
Doppelsatz; philosophy’s role of comprehending reality rather than instigating social and
political change
Main reading: Hegel, Elements of the Philosophy of Right, Preface (pp. 9-23)
Supplementary reading: G. W. F. Hegel, The Encyclopaedia Logic, trans. T. F. Gereats, W. A.
Suchting and H. S. Harris (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1991), § 6
Selected further reading:
Avineri, Shlomo, Hegel’s Theory of the Modern State (Cambridge University Press, 1972),
Chapter 6
Franco, Paul, Hegel’s Philosophy of Freedom (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999),
Chapter 4
Hardimon, Michael, Hegel’s Social Philosophy: The Project of Reconciliation (Cambridge
University Press, 1994), Chapters 2, 3 and 4
Haym, Rudolf, ‘Extract from Hegel and his Times (1857)’, in Robert Stern (ed.) G. W. F. Hegel
Critical Assessments (London: Routledge, 1993), Volume I, pp. 217-240 Knowles, Dudley, The
Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Hegel and the Philosophy of Right (London: Routledge,
2002), Chapter 3
Peperzak, Adriaan, Philosophy and Politics: A Commentary on the Preface to Hegel’s
Philosophy of Right (Dordrecht: Nijhoff, 1987)
Stern, Robert, ‘Hegel’s Doppelsatz: A Neutral Reading’, Journal of the History of Philosophy
44(2) (2006)
Week 2
The Introduction to Hegel’s Elements of the Philosophy of Right: right, will and
freedom
Topics: The concept of right (Recht); Hegel’s theory of the will; right as the ‘existence’ of the
free will
Main reading: Hegel, Elements of the Philosophy of Right, Introduction §§ 1-33
Selected further reading:
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Franco, Hegel’s Philosophy of Freedom, Chapter 5
Honneth, Axel, The Pathologies of Individual Freedom: Hegel’s Social Theory (Princeton
University Press, 2010), Chapter 1
James, David, Rousseau and German Idealism: Freedom, Dependence and Necessity
(Cambridge University Press, 2013), Chapter 4, pp. 143-156.
Knowles, Hegel and the Philosophy of Right, Chapter 2
Patten, Alan, Hegel’s Idea of Freedom (Oxford University Press, 1999), Chapter 2 Riedel,
Manfred, Between Tradition and Revolution: The Hegelian Transformation of Political
Philosophy, trans. W. Wright (Cambridge University Press, 1984), Chapter 3 Riedel, Manfred,
‘Nature and Freedom in Hegel’s Philosophy of Right’, in Z. A. Pelczynski (ed.) Hegel’s Political
Philosophy: Problems and Perspectives (Cambridge University Press, 1971)
Wood, Allen W., Hegel’s Ethical Thought (Cambridge University Press, 1990), Chapters 1, 2
and 3
Week 3
Abstract right: personality and property
Topics: Personality; property as the first ‘existence’ of the free will; the problem of slavery;
Hegel’s justification of private property
Main reading: Hegel, Elements of the Philosophy of Right, §§ 34-71
Supplementary reading: J. G. Fichte, Foundations of Natural Right, ed. F. Neuhouser
(Cambridge University Press, 2000) (For an alternative view of property based
on principles similar to those found in Hegel’s account of abstract right)
Selected further reading:
Franco, Hegel’s Philosophy of Freedom, Chapter 6, pp. 188-207
James, David, Fichte’s Social and Political Philosophy: Property and Virtue
(Cambridge University Press, 2011), Chapter 1
Knowles, Hegel and the Philosophy of Right, Chapters 4 and 5
Quante, Michael, ‘“The Personality of the Will” as the Principle of Abstract Right:
An Analysis of §§34-40 of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right in Terms of the
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Logical Structure of the Concept’, in Robert B. Pippin and Otfried Höffe
(eds.) Hegel on Ethics and Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2004)
Patten, Hegel’s Idea of Freedom, Chapter 5
Ritter, Joachim, ‘Person and Property in Hegel’s Philosophy of Right (§§34-81)’, in
Pippin and Höffe (eds.) Hegel on Ethics and Politics
Waldron, Jeremy, The Right to Private Property (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988),
Chapter 10
Williams, Robert R., Hegel’s Ethics of Recognition (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1997), Chapter 7
Wood, Hegel’s Ethical Thought, Chapters 4 and 5
Week 4
Morality
Topics: Moral subjectivity; subjective freedom; welfare; the moral will; conscience
Main reading: Hegel, Elements of the Philosophy of Right, §§ 105-141
Supplementary reading: (On Hegel’s critique of Kantian morality) Hegel, Phenomenology of
Spirit, trans. A. V. Miller (Oxford University Press, 1977), pp. 256-262, section entitled ‘Reason
as Testing Laws’.
Selected further reading:
Franco, Hegel’s Philosophy of Freedom, Chapter 6, pp. 207-220
James, Rousseau and German Idealism, Chapter 4, pp. 156-163
Knowles, Hegel and the Philosophy of Right, Chapter 7 and 8
Sedgwick, Sally, ‘Hegel on the Empty Formalism of Kant’s Categorical Imperative’,
in Stephen Houlgate and Michael Baur (eds.), A Companion to Hegel (Malden, MA:
Wiley-Blackwell, 2011)
Williams, Hegel’s Ethics of Recognition, Chapter 9
Wood, Hegel’s Ethical Thought, Chapters 7, 8, 9 and 10
Week 5
Ethical life and the family
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Topics: Ethical life; the family
Main reading: Hegel, Elements of the Philosophy of Right, §§ 142-181
Selected further reading:
Blasche, Siegfried, ‘Natural Ethical Life and Civil Society: Hegel’s Construction of
the Family’, in Pippin and Höffe (eds.) Hegel on Ethics and Politics
Buchwalter, Andrew, Dialectics, Politics, and the Contemporary Value of Hegel’s
Practical Philosophy (New York/London: Routledge, 2012), Chapter 8
Franco, Hegel’s Philosophy of Freedom, Chapter 6, pp. 220-233 and Chapter 7, pp.
234-249
Hardimon, Hegel’s Social Philosophy, Chapter 5 and Chapter 6, pp. 174-189
Honneth, Axel, The Pathologies of Individual Freedom, Chapters 2 and 3
Knowles, Hegel and the Philosophy of Right, Chapters 9 and 10
Neuhouser, Frederick, Foundations of Hegel’s Social Theory: Actualizing Freedom
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000), Chapters 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7
Siep, Ludwig, ‘The “Aufhebung” of Morality in Ethical Life’, in L. Stepelevich and
D. Lamb (eds.) Hegel’s Philosophy of Action (Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities
Press, 1983)
Taylor, Charles, Hegel (Cambridge University Press, 1975), Chapter 14
Williams, Hegel’s Ethics of Recognition, Chapter 10
Wood, Hegel’s Ethical Thought, Chapters 11 and 12
Week 6 READING WEEK (No lecture and seminar)
Week 7
Civil society
Topics: Civil society as the ‘state of necessity’; need-generation and need-satisfaction; the
educative function of civil society; poverty; the corporation
Main reading: Hegel, Elements of the Philosophy of Right, §§ 182-256
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Selected further reading:
Arato, Andrew, ‘A Reconstruction of Hegel’s Theory of Civil Society’, in Drucilla
Cornell, Michael Rosenfeld and David Gray Carlson (eds.) Hegel and Legal Theory
(New York/London: Routledge, 1991)
Avineri, Hegel’s Theory of the Modern State, Chapter 7
Franco, Hegel’s Philosophy of Freedom, Chapter 7, pp. 234-236 and 249-277
Hardimon, Hegel’s Social Philosophy, Chapter 6, pp. 189-205 and Chapter 7, pp.
236-250
Horstmann, Rolf-Peter, ‘The Role of Civil Society in Hegel’s Political Philosophy’, in
Pippin and Höffe (eds.) Hegel on Ethics and Politics
Ilting, K. H., ‘The Dialectic of Civil Society’ in Z. A. Pelzcynski (ed.), The State and
Civil Society: Studies in Hegel’s Political Philosophy (Cambridge University Press,
1984); reprinted in in Robert Stern (ed.) G. W. F. Hegel Critical Assessments
(London: Routledge, 1993), Volume IV, pp. 274-292
James, Rousseau and German Idealism, Chapter 4, pp. 163-193
Knowles, Hegel and the Philosophy of Right, Chapters 11 and 12
Riedel, Between Tradition and Revolution: The Hegelian Transformation of Political
Philosophy, Chapter 6
Williams, Hegel’s Ethics of Recognition, Chapter 11
Wood, Hegel’s Ethical Thought, Chapter 14
Week 8
The state
Topics: The transition from civil society to the state; Hegel’s theory of the state; the relation
between religion and the state
Main reading: Hegel, Elements of the Philosophy of Right, §§ 256-320
Supplementary reading: (on religion and the state): G.W.F. Hegel, ‘Address on the
Tercentenary of the Submission of the Augsburg Confession (25 June 1830)’ and ‘The
Relationship of Religion to the State (1831)’ in Political Writings, ed. L. Dickey and H. B. Nisbet
(Cambridge University Press, 1999)
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Further reading:
Avineri, Hegel’s Theory of the Modern State, Chapters 8 and 9
Buchwalter, Dialectics, Politics, and the Contemporary Value of Hegel’s Practical
Philosophy, Chapter 9
Franco, Hegel’s Philosophy of Freedom, Chapter 8
Hardimon, Hegel’s Social Philosophy, Chapter 6, pp. 205-227
Jaeschke, Walter, ‘Christianity and Secularity in Hegel’s Concept of the State’, The
Journal of Religion 61(2) (1981); reprinted in in Stern (ed.) G. W. F. Hegel Critical
Assessments, Volume IV, pp. 461-478
Knowles, Hegel and the Philosophy of Right, Chapter 13
Patten, Hegel’s Idea of Freedom, Chapters 4 and 6
Pelczynski, Z. B. ‘The Hegelian Conception of the State’, in Pelczynski (ed.) Hegel’s
Political Philosophy
Siep, Ludwig, ‘Constitution, Fundamental Rights, and Social Welfare in Hegel’s
Philosophy of Right’, in Pippin and Höffe (eds.) Hegel on Ethics and Politics
Williams, Hegel’s Ethics of Recognition, Chapters 12 and 13
Week 9
Marx’s critique of Hegel’s theory of the state
Topics: Marx’s critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right; the state as an alienated form of life
Main reading: ‘From the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right (1843)’ and ‘A Contribution to
the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right: Introduction’, in Karl Marx, Early Political
Writings, pp. 1-27 and pp. 57-70
Selected further reading:
Avineri, Shlomo, The Social and Political Thought of Karl Marx (Cambridge
University Press, 1968), Chapters 1 and 2
Berki, R. N., ‘Perspectives in the Marxian Critique of Hegel’s Political Philosophy’,
in Pelczynski (ed.) Hegel’s Political Philosophy
Duquette, David, ‘Marx’s Idealist Critique of Hegel’s Theory of Society and Politics’
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The Review of Politics 51(2) (1989)
Leopold, David, The Young Karl Marx: German Philosophy, Modern Politics, and Human Flourishing
(Cambridge University Press, 2007), Chapter 2 and Chapter 4, pp. 245-254
Ilting, K. H., ‘Hegel’s Concept of the State and Marx’s Early Critique’, in Pelzcynski (ed.), The State
and Civil Society
Week 10
External sovereignty and history
Topics: War; international relations; Hegel’s philosophy of history
Main reading: Hegel, Elements of the Philosophy of Right, §§ 321-360
Supplementary reading: G. W. F. Hegel, Lectures on the Philosophy of World History: Introduction,
trans. H. B. Nisbet (Cambridge University Press, 1975), pp. 2593; and G.W.F. Hegel, ‘Lectures on the
Philosophy of History (1827-1831), Part IV, Section 3: The New Age’, in Political Writings, ed. L.
Dickey and H. B. Nisbet (Cambridge University Press, 1999)
Selected further reading:
Avineri, Hegel’s Theory of the Modern State, Chapters 10 and 12
Bernasconi, Robert, ‘“The Ruling Categories of the World”: The Trinity in Hegel’s
Philosophy of History and the Rise and Fall of Peoples’, in Houlgate and Baur (eds.),
A Companion to Hegel
Buchwalter, Dialectics, Politics, and the Contemporary Value of Hegel’s Practical
Philosophy, Chapter 10, 11 and 12
Hardimon, Hegel’s Social Philosophy, Chapter 7, pp. 230-236
Plamenatz, John, ‘History as the Realization of Freedom’, in Pelczynski (ed.) Hegel’s
Political Philosophy
Verene, D. P., ‘Hegel’s Account of War’, in Pelczynski (ed.) Hegel’s Political
Philosophy
Williams, Hegel’s Ethics of Recognition, Chapter 14
Wood, Hegel’s Ethical Thought, Chapter 13