Hegel’s Moral and Political Philosophy
Prof. Patrick Frierson
frierspr@whitman.edu
Office
Hours in Olin 151: T 11-12, W 9-10, 11-12.
Purpose: The primary
purpose of this course is to help you think more deeply about important moral
and political problems. Hegel was one of
the most insightful and original moral and political philosophers of all time,
and his approach to moral and political philosophy is both radically different
than most contemporary approaches and deeply influential on current trends of
thought. By being immersed in Hegelian thinking
about moral and political problems, you will be able to think more creatively
about contemporary issues. As secondary
(but important) goals, this course will teach you to read difficult texts
carefully and closely and to express yourselves clearly and convincingly orally
and in writing.
Requirements:
In this course we will focus on carefully reading
through and thinking about Hegel’s Philosophy
of Right. The Philosophy of Right is one of Hegel’s easier works, but Hegel is
one of philosophy’s most difficult philosophers. The reading, in other words, will be doable
but difficult. The most important
requirement for this class is to read and reread each assignment carefully and
come to class with a clear view about the meaning of the text, how each
paragraph flows into the following one and follows from the previous ones, and
what Hegel’s overall goal is in the reading for the day. This will not be easy, and we will not always
agree on the meaning of Hegel’s text.
The point is to come to class with a well-thought-out interpretation, not
with an unassailable and perfected understanding of the text.
In addition to coming to class to
prepared, you will be expected to share
your ideas and insights with the class.
Interpreting Hegel will be a cooperative venture, and the course depends
on active engagement with each other during class times. Thus class participation is a crucial part of
the class and will be worth 25% of your final grade, based primarily on the
quality (but also to some extent on the quantity) of your contributions to class
discussions. Because this is a class in
which you are a participant in your classmates’ education, rather than merely a
member of an audience, attendance will also factor into your grade. After your first absence, every unexcused
absence will lower your participation grade by 2/3 of a point (from A- to B,
for example).
There are two key writing components to
the class, a journal (worth 50% of your final grade) and a final paper (worth
25% of your final grade).
Philosophy
of Right Journal: As you read Hegel, you should be keeping a
detailed journal. This journal will help
you focus as you seek to develop your interpretation of Hegel, and it will
provide a permanent resource to which you can return for your final paper and
in the future. You should email these journals to me every Monday morning (by 9
AM). I will not necessarily read your
journals every week, but I will check them to make sure that they are up to
date, and your final grade on the journal will be based in part on the extent
to which your entries over the course of the semester are kept up to date. The
journal has several parts:
(a)
Hegel in outline (approximately 40% of your journal
grade): You should regularly
summarize Hegel’s argument in your own words.
For each paragraph (§) in Hegel, you should write a 1-3 sentence summary of the
paragraph. As much as possible, you
should avoid Hegelese and you should write sentences that your friends could
understand and that would communicate to them the main points of Hegel’s
text. It will probably be easiest to
write these sentences as you go along, writing a short summary for each
paragraph after you finish reading it.
However, you should periodically review your outline to make sure that
the overall “flow” of Hegel’s argument is represented in your outline. (For short paragraphs that do not add
significantly to the Hegel’s argument, you may cluster summaries of 2-3
paragraphs into a single 1-3 sentence entry, but do this sparingly.)
At the end of each section in Hegel (including the Preface),
you should write a 1-3 paragraph summary
of the overall argument of the section.
(When we get to Ethical Life, you may need to write these at the end of
each sub-section.) The point here is to
clearly explain the overall flow of Hegel’s argument, including the key stages
through which it moves, the motivations to move on to each successive stage,
and the concluding position of the section.
If possible, you should have a paragraph discussing potential problems
with Hegel’s “conclusion.” Similarly, at
the end of each Part in Hegel, you
should write a 1-3 paragraph summary
of the overall argument of the Part.
(Thus at the end of §141, for example, you will write a 1-3 sentence
summary of §141, a 1-3 paragraph summary of “Section 3: The Good and Conscience,” and a 1-3
paragraph summary of “Part Two: Morality.”)
Each outline must be
written in your journal before we
discuss the relevant sections in class.
Your final journal grade could drop
by a full grade point or more if journals are not kept up to date.
(b) Hegel Lexicon (~10%): Hegel uses words in some quite peculiar ways. Over the course of the semester, you should
put together a lexicon of at least 20 key Hegelian terms. For each term, you should provide the German
word (ask me for help with this or use the German edition on reserve in
Penrose), the English translation used in our text, a philosophically astute
explanation of the meaning of the term, and at least one example of its use in
the text that shows its philosophical significance. You should add at least one word to your
lexicon each week and should have at
least 15 words in it at the end of the semester.
(c) Informal reflection, questions, and
criticism (~10%): As you read and summarize Hegel, you should
write down questions that you have about how to interpret him, reflection on
how Hegel might relate to other issues that concern you, and problems that you
see with his argument. This part of your
journal does not need to be carefully crafted; it is an opportunity for you to
keep track of your own thoughts and share them with me.
(d) Formal reflection and criticism
(~30%): At least five times over the
course of the semester, you should take one of the comments or criticisms
raised in your informal reflections (c) and develop this into a well-focused
and articulate comment, criticism, or question. (You should complete at least
three of these before Spring Break.)
These should be at least 300
words and no more than 1500 words. At least one of these reflections should be
an “immanent critique” of Hegel – an attempt to show that some aspects of Hegel’s
philosophy violates his own standards or is inconsistent with his system. At least one other reflection should be an
application of Hegelian philosophy to a current philosophical, moral, or
political problem. I will comment on
your formal reflections extensively, so you should use them to articulate ideas
on which you want feedback. (These reflections are a good forum to start
working towards the final paper.)
Whenever you write a formal reflection, you should email me your journal
and specifically direct my attention to your (new) formal reflection.
(e) Corrections, revisions, and responses
(~10%): I will periodically write questions or
comments in your journals and email them back to you (and/or just email you
comments). You should respond (with a
separate clearly marked entry/comment in your journal) to at least some of
these comments. (You need not respond to
every comment; I’ll be looking for engagement in a conversation, not exhaustive
coverage of every point that I raise.)
Final
Paper: The final paper should be a sustained
argument defending a particular interpretation of Hegel, using Hegel to defend
an important moral or political position, and/or criticizing Hegel in a
significant way. The thesis of your
paper should be significant, interesting, and potentially controversial. In other words, if you cannot imagine anyone
other than you being interested in your thesis, or if you cannot imagine any
intelligent person disagreeing with that thesis, do not write a paper defending
it. The argument for your thesis should
be clear and well supported with both philosophical argument and textual
references.
For advice on writing papers in
philosophy, I strongly recommend that you refer to Joe Cruz’s Writing Tutor at
http://www.williams.edu/acad-depts/philosophy/jcruz/writingtutor/ .
I expect you to have consulted this Writing Tutor
before beginning your final paper.
In order to get any higher than a C on
your paper, you must have a well articulated thesis that is significant,
interesting, and potentially controversial.
The paper must draw on the Philosophy
of Right to defend that claim with proper referencing and textual
support. The paper must be well
organized into coherent paragraphs and show grammatical correctness
throughout. The minimum length of a C
paper is 1800 words.
In addition to these requirements, in
order to get a B+ on your final paper, your thesis must be clearly explained
and well defended. A reader unfamiliar
with Hegel should be able to follow every step of your argument, and your argument
should be able to convince a person who began the paper doubting your
thesis. You must have ample textual
support from Hegel’s Philosophy of Right and
you must explain potentially difficult Hegelian terms. Your paper must be rigorous enough to be
appreciated by someone who has already studied Hegel but clear enough to be
read by someone unfamiliar with Hegel’s terminology. You must take into account significant
possible objections to your thesis, showing how you respond to those
objections. The argument for your thesis
should be clear and compelling. The
minimum length of a B+ paper is 2500 words.
In order to get an A or an A- on your
paper, the paper must meet all of the above qualifications and also be
elegantly written. The thesis must be
particularly challenging and the argument particularly lucid and concise. In addition, a paper that gets an A or A-
will go beyond Hegel’s Philosophy of
Right and make substantial use of secondary sources. (These can include Wood but must also include others. Beyond
Wood, you can look to the secondary sources on reserve in Penrose as well as
sources that you find in your own research.
A good source for references is the Philosopher’s Index: http://web5.silverplatter.com/webspirs/start.ws?customer=c35360. You should not expect to get an A if you have
not at least consulted the Philosopher’s Index for potentially relevant
sources. You should also look to
footnotes and references in good sources for guides to further sources.) The minimum length of an A or A- paper is
3000 words. Note: Using secondary sources and writing at least 4000 words is not sufficient to get an A- on your
final paper. The paper must also be
clear, compelling, interesting, elegantly written, and meet all the other
criteria listed above.
The final paper is due on Thursday, May 13, at 2:30 PM.
Books: G.W.F.
Hegel, Elements of the Philosophy of
Right, ed. Allen W. Wood. Cambridge University Press, 1991. ISBN:
0-521-34888-9.
Allen Wood, Hegel’s Ethical Thought. Cambridge University
Press, 1990. ISBN: 0-521-37782-x.
Books
on Reserve:
Schlomo Avineri, Hegel’s Theory of the Modern State
Charles Taylor, Hegel
Charles Taylor, Hegel’s
Theory of the Modern
State
Paul Franco, Hegel’s Philosophy of Freedom
Mark Tunick, Hegel’s Political Theory: interpreting
the practice of legal punishment
Terry Pinkard, Hegel:
A biography B2947.P56
Karl Marx, Critique of Hegel’s ‘Philosophy of Right’
G.W.F. Hegel, Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts