The Ethics of Democracy: A Contemporary Reading of Hegel's Philosophy of Right (SUNY series in Contemporary Italian Philosophy)

Demonstrates how the ethical underpinning of Hegel’s political and social philosophy has relevance for contemporary democratic life. The legal regulations and formal rules of democracy alone are not enough to hold a society together and govern its processes. Yet the irreducible ethical pluralism that characterizes contemporary society seems to make it impossible to impose a single system of values as a source of social cohesion and identity reference. In this book, Lucio Cortella argues that Hegel’s theory of ethical life can provide such a grounding and makes the case through an analysis of Hegel’s central political work, the Philosophy of Right. Although Hegel did not support democratic political ends and wrote in a historical and cultural context far removed from the current liberal-democratic scene, Cortella maintains that the Hegelian theory of ethical life, with its emphasis on securing a framework conducive to human freedom, nevertheless offers a convincing response to the problem of the ethical uprootedness of contemporary democracy. Contents 8 Translator’s Introduction 10 Preface to the English Translation 14 Preface to the Original Italian Edition: Does Democracy Need Ethics? 22 Introduction. Morality and Ethical Life: Key Concepts in Hegel’s Conception of the Political 28 Chapter 1. Freedom and the Absolute 38 1.1. Freedom and Ontology 39 1.2. Freedom and Self-transparency 44 1.3. Freedom and Negativity 46 1.4. Freedom and Finitude 47 1.5. Freedom and Relation 48 1.6. Freedom and Objectivity 51 1.7. Freedom and Self-consciousness 55 Chapter 2. The Age of Universal Freedom 58 2.1. “Person” and the Universality of Right 59 2.2. Freedom as Autonomy of the Subject 75 2.3. Freedom of Civil Society 85 2.3.1. Civil Society as State of Nature 85 2.3.2. Abstract Freedom Becomes Reality 87 2.3.3. Primacy of Freedom Over Nature 89 2.3.4. Overcoming Individualism 93 2.3.5. Civil Society as “the External State” 96 2.3.6. The Realm of Appearance 97 2.3.7. From Subjective Freedom to Relational Freedom: Family, Civil Society, Corporation 102 Chapter 3. Actualization of Ethical Life: The Sphere of the State 110 3.1. Characteristics of Hegelian Ethical Life 112 3.1.1. Unity of Freedom and Nature 112 3.1.2. Unity of Freedom and History 115 3.1.3. Reconciliation of Universality and Ethos 120 3.1.4. Ethos as “Second Nature” 122 3.1.5. Healing the Diremption of Modernity 127 3.1.6. Practical Unity of Subject and Object 132 3.2. Ethical Life as Primacy of the Object 141 3.2.1. Reconciliation of Individual and Universal 141 3.2.2. The Originariness of Order 143 3.2.3. A Subjectivity Deficit 147 3.3. Contingency of the Ethical 151 3.3.1. Failure of Ethical Life 151 3.3.2. Nationalistic Closure of the Universality of Sittlichkeit and the Defeat of Freedom 154 3.3.3. From Objective Spirit to Absolute Spirit 159 Chapter 4. Elements of a Postidealist Ethical Life: A Democratization of Hegel’s Political Philosophy 164 4.1. Logico-ontological Presuppositions of Hegelian Ethical Life 165 4.1.1. From Ethical Life to the Philosophy of History 168 4.1.2. From Philosophy of History to Logic 170 4.1.3. Two Competing Conceptions of the Idea of Freedom 172 4.2. Ethical Life and Logic of Recognition 174 4.2.1. Logic of Recognition 175 4.2.2. Ethical Life and Otherness 178 4.2.3. Normative Background of Recognition and Spheres of Ethical Life 179 4.3. Democracy as Ethos 183 4.3.1. Fundamental Characteristics of a Democratic Ethical Life 185 4.3.2. A Democratization of Hegel 188 Notes 198 Bibliography 224 Index 236 Lucio Cortella ; Translated By Giacomo Donis. Originally Published As L'etica Della Democrazia. Attualità Della Filosofia Del Diritto Di Hegel (marietti Editore, 2011)--title Page Verso. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Translated From The Italian.