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Unit 10: George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

a future based on human emancipation within a framework of true democracy like Marx. Such Notes
ideas were negations of the entire approach of Hegel, which is based on the assumption that the
real is rational, and that the immediate present and not the future is the concern.
War and International Relations

One of the most controversial aspects of Hegel’s political philosophy, in sharp contrast to the
optimism of the Enlightenment, was his assertion that war “preserves the ethical health of peoples”.
He repudiated the liberal theory of obligation for confusing civil society with the state. He
commented :
... an entirely distorted account of the demand for this sacrifice results from regarding
the state as a mere civil society and from regarding its final end as only the security of
individual life and property. This security cannot possibly be obtained by the sacrifice
what is to be secured on the contrary.
Civil society was an arena of life motivated by subjectivity, a creation of the modern world created
by Christianity, and the doctrine of natural rights which did not perceive the human individual as
a political animal but as possessors of certain inalienable rights which the state had to protect.
Self-interest was the guiding force of civil society, with Smith’s “invisible hand” as the controlling
agency of economic transactions and of ensuring the mutual satisfaction of individual needs.
Unity of civil society developed unconsciously by exchange of goods and services at the market
place. Hegel’s essential argument was that the aim of civil society was different from that of the
state, and this differentiation was the key to understanding Hegel’s theory of war and international
relations.
The state, i.e. the “political state”, was an ethical community. It was not an instrument for advancing
one’s material interests. It was not based on brute force, where obedience came out of coercion and
fear. It was a union much above all these, which emphasized shared values and demanded common
sacrifice. Obligation to such an entity flowed not from fear, but from a shared view of good life.
The emphasis was on the ethical, spiritual and material characters of the state. Hegel’s defence of
war was derived from the argument that the ethical nature of the state was preserved by war. As
an ethical entity, it could resort to war in order to maintain itself. War was a moment in the ethical
life of the state.
War is not to be regarded as an absolute evil and as a purely external accident, which
itself therefore has some accidental cause, be it injustices, the passions of nations or the
holders of power, etc., or in short, something or other which ought not to be. It is to
what is by nature accidental that accidents happen, and the fate whereby they happen
is thus a necessity. Here as elsewhere, the point of view from which things seem pure
accident vanishes if we look at them in the light of the concept and philosophy because
philosophy knows accident for a show and sees in it its essence, necessity.
War raised the level of consciousness from mere material possessions and interests. During wars,
common values and commitments were not only preserved, but also enhanced. Prolonged peace
led to the mistaken belief that the state existed only for civil society. War had both a negative and
a positive utility. Negatively, it demonstrated the limitations of the material world, and positively,
it united people for a common goal. The argument was as follows.
In order not to let them get rooted and settled in this isolation and thus break up the
whole into fragments and let the common spirit evaporate, government has from time
to time to shake them to the very center by War. By this means it confounds the order
that has been established and arranged, and violates their right to independence,
while the individuals ... are made, by the task thus imposed on them by government,
to feel the power of their lord and master, death. By thus breaking up the form of fixed
stability, spirit guards the ethical order from sinking into merely natural existence,

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