The political of nature: References to natural world in Hegel’s Elements of the Philosophy of Right
Keywords:
Philosophy of Right, Philosophy of Nature, System, Life, Political OrganicismCopyright (c) 2023 Eduardo Assalone
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
The present paper approaches to G.W.F. Hegel’s Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts from a ‘cross reading’ of his system, which connects the book with the Philosophy of Nature. For this, I offer a preliminary classification of Philosophy of Nature’s references in the Grundlinien based on three groups or types of reference: 1) the comparison between nature and spirit, 2) nature as a subject matter of Philosophy of Right, and 3) the philosophical-natural language used by Hegel for thinking spiritual reality.
The paper is divided into three sections, according to each group of philosophical-natural references. In each section, some cases of these references are developed, as examples. This exemplification shows the value of a cross reading of Hegel’s system as proposed here. The main conclusion is that the most relevant group of references for studying the relationship between Philosophy of Nature and Philosophy of Right is the second one, because nature is not just an excuse for talking about spirit, nor a kind of language that points to a broader reality, not specific to nature. Nature as a subject matter of Philosophy of Right shows at the same time the natural dimension of spirit and the political dimension of nature, the natural side of the Objective Spirit and the political relevance of nature, the fact that the spirit’s achievements in this objective sphere are largely due to what he does or fails to do with nature, both in his own interiority and in the external world.
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