An Ethical Modernity?: Hegel’s Concept of Ethical Life Today

__An Ethical Modernity?__ investigates the relation between Hegel’s doctrine of ethical life (__Sittlichkeit__) and modernity as a historical category and a philosophical concept. In this collection of essays, the authors analyze Hegel’s theory of ethical life from various perspectives: social ontology, social practices and beliefs, theory of judgment, relations between Hegel’s theory of ethical life and Kant’s ethics, Hegel’s philosophy of family, relation of the modern market to ‘European values’, the ethos of state and of international relations, and Hegel’s metaphilosophical commitment to philosophy. This volume is of importance to anyone interested in how Hegel’s practical philosophy relates to us and our times. Half Title 1 Series Information 2 Title Page 3 Copyright Page 4 Contents 5 Notes on Contributors 7 Introduction 11 1 Do We Know What Modernity Is? 11 2 The Essays 18 Abbreviations of Hegel’s Works 23 References 24 Chapter 1 The Authority of Conceptual Analysis in Hegelian Ethical Life 25 1 Introduction1 25 2 Modern Ethical Life as the Realization of the Concept 28 3 Social Ontology and the Objective Authority of Concepts 33 4 “Essentially Contested” Concepts and Intersubjective Authority 38 5 Conclusion 42 Abbreviations 43 References 44 Chapter 2 Slaves to Habit: the Positivity of Modern Ethical Life 46 1 Two Sides of Habit 49 2 Habit in Modernity 55 3 Social Habits: the Positivity of Ethical Life 57 Abbreviations 65 References 65 Chapter 3 The Concept of Judgment on the Legal Stage: an Alternative View of Hegel’s Theory of Freedom 68 1 From Political to Legal Judgment 68 2 Revenge, Law and the Consciousness of Right 71 2.1 The Logic of the Forms of Judgment and Free Will 71 2.2 Revenge, Consciousness of Right, and Law 73 3 On the Dramaturgy of Procedure and Judgment 79 3.1 Judgment and State Authority 79 3.2 The Dramaturgy of the Procedure 80 3.3 Judicial Judgment and Justice in the Individual Case 82 4 Responsive Right and Political Judgment 86 Abbreviations 88 References 89 Chapter 4 Hegel’s Ethical Life as the Attempt to Offer a Home to the Categorical Imperative 93 1 The First Moment of Ethical Life 95 2 The Second Moment of Ethical Life 102 3 Conclusion 110 Abbreviations of Hegel’s Writings 111 References 112 Chapter 5 Formalism and the Actuality of Freedom: on Kant and Hegel 113 1 Sittlichkeit as an Enigma 113 2 Hegel’s Criticism of Practical Formalism 115 3 Formalism as Frustration of Actualizing Freedom 117 4 Hegel’s Logic of Freedom 120 5 Hegel’s Sittlichkeit as Rationalization of the Content: Overcoming the Unfreedom of Action 121 Abbreviations 124 References 125 Chapter 6 Hegel’s Philosophy of the Modern Family: Fatal Families? 128 1 Introduction 128 2 The Family in a Hegelian Interpretation: Timely Nucleus in the Eternal Nature 130 3 Love as Felt Freedom? 135 4 The Freedom to Be Born, the Freedom to Die 137 5 Ironical Families 142 6 Hegel’s Thought on Families Today 144 Abbreviations of Hegel’s Writings 146 References 147 Chapter 7 “The European Spirit”: Some Remarks on the Idea of Europe from a Hegelian Point of View 149 1 Introduction 149 2 Reclamation of Guiding Cultural Ideas as a Challenge for the Philosophy of History 151 3 Europe—the Elephant Which We Seldom See? 153 4 Looking for Universally Valid European Values 157 Abbreviations of Hegel’s Writings 161 References 162 Chapter 8 The State and Ethical Life in Hegel’s Philosophy 164 1 The State and the Family 165 2 The State and Civil Society 167 3 Patriotism, the State, and Religion 172 4 The State as a Political Power 175 Abbreviations of Hegel’s Writings 181 References 181 Chapter 9 “Sittlichkeit” in International Politics 183 1 Ambiguity of International Law 184 1.1 The Lack of a Supranational Sovereign Power 185 1.2 Tension between Welfare and Morality 187 1.3 International Civil Society 190 2 Cosmopolitanism or Nationalism? 191 3 Toward Perpetual Peace? 193 4 Conclusion 196 Abbreviations 199 References 200 Chapter 10 Modern Philosophy and Philosophical Modernity: Hegel’s Metaphilosophical Commitment 201 1 Introduction 201 2 Hegel’s Vorsatz: Philosophy, Modernity, and Subjectivity 202 3 The Modern Shape of Philosophy 206 4 The Philosophical Shape of Modernity 210 Abbreviations of Hegel’s Writings 212 References 212 Supplement: Hegel’s Travels to Bohemia 214 1 The First Impressions of Prague 215 2 Hegel’s Last Trip Abroad to Teplice, Prague, and Carlsbad 217 Abbreviations 222 Bibliography 222 Index of Names 223 Index of Subjects 226 "Modernity has neither a beginning nor an end. To be precise, we do not know when the period started and when (or if) it ended. Are we modern? Were we ever modern? And is "post- modernity" only a variation of modernity? These questions remain open. Just as the phenomenon of modernity is elusive, so is its definition. Yet, elusiveness never prevents thinkers from offering definitions. On the contrary, the very elusiveness is what incites these creative attempts. One of the most famous definitions of modernity does not originate with a philosopher but a poet. Baudelaire says that "modernity is the transient, the fleeting, the contingent; it is one half of art, the other being the eternal and the immovable" (Baudelaire 1972, 403). This understanding of modernity captures more than its fleetingness; it shows that anything with the tag "modern" has a built- in dimension of transience and finitude, so to speak. Taking inspiration from Baudelaire, we might arrive at a minimal- and by no means unproblematic- definition of modernity: Modern is that which is other than tradition, that which even opposes tradition"-- Provided by publisher