Hegel and the French Revolution

by Joachim Ritter

These essays On Hegel's political philosophy are taken from Ritter's influential Metaphysik and Politik. They discuss the importance of Hegel's evaluation of modernity by focusing upon his unique conceptions of property relations, morality, civil society, and the state. Ritter's work has played a seminal role in rekindling interest in Hegel's social and political philosophy. Ritter's clarity of expression makes Hegel's concepts accessible to a wide audience of philosophers, sociologists, political scientists, historians, and others concerned with the legitimacy of modernity, the relation of society and the state, or in Hegel's relation to Marx and other later thinkers.

This book is in the series Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought.

Genres: Philosophy, French Revolution

127 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1957

Reviews

[Maxim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ritter schreibt durchaus erfolgreich gegen den Mythos von Hegel als „preußischem Staatsphilosoph“ an und erklärt die Bedeutung der Revolution in Hegels Werk, gelesen als politische Philosophie. Besonders interessant ist dabei wie Ritter herausarbeitet, dass Hegel die „natürliche“ Freiheit der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft als geschichtlich versteht.

[Jooseppi Räikkönen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is quite a good disambiguation of Hegel's thoughts on the paradoxical nature of the French revolution and its relationship to modernity. Generally Ritter's Hegel is an unshakeable modernist, a long shot from the conservative proto-Bismarckian many interpreters present us with. The idea that the division between subjective rationality and historical rationality itself, and not the dominance of either is only made possible by modernity was interesting. Also this made a bunch of stuff about Habermas's reading of Hegel click.
I need to reread it before I make up my mind on what I think.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ritter richtet sich gegen die weitverbreitete Annahme eines konservativen Hegels bzw. Hegel als Philosoph Preußens, indem er seine Beziehung zur französischen Revolution und die Bedeutung des Begriffes Revolution für die Philosophie Hegels herausstellt.
Spannend!

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting; reading this was the impetus for me to read a bit more about Hegel, to the point where I can finally understand what was distinctive about him. This book itself, while I'm sure it is excellent and full of intriguing arguments for Hegel experts, didn't add much to my knowledge if I'm being honest.