Guest Speaker Event

The talk defends Hegel against the common interpretation of him as a precursor of authoritarianism and instead reads him as a liberal. This is already evident in Hegel's critique of Kant. For according to Hegel, the "mere ought" and the good will lead to terror and totalitarianism. Furthermore, the determination of the state as the "actuality of the ethical idea" rests on the dialectical mediation of the universal and the particular, the binding of the state to law and constitution, the separation of powers with a special role for the judiciary, the distinction between politics and religion, and the rejection of slavery. At the same time, Hegel's state is not a minimal state, but is characterized by social welfare obligations. And finally, for Hegel history is a "progress in the consciousness of freedom," in which the ethical idea of freedom, preserved in law, is realized ever anew. Hegel's philosophy can thus provide that meaning-giving narrative which liberalism lacks.