Abstract

Critics have long complained that the Philosophy of Right is a dogmatic attempt to cover up the deep-seated conflicts of the modern state. By contrast, I argue that Hegel developed his conception of a unified state from out of the deepest divisions of community and freedom. Precisely because the ‘negativity’ in the state is ‘absolute’ – i.e. not limited by nature or history – it is the means by which moderns can discover in themselves a divine principle of harmony and reconciliation