Conclusion: Politics, Philosophy and Critique

Abstract

At the outset of this book, the interdependence of Hegel’s conceptions of philosophy and history maintained in his history of political philosophy was explored. The succeeding chapters may be seen as demonstrations of an Hegelianised notion of the history of political philosophy. In surveying Hegel and a range of predecessors and successors, the essays contained in this volume show how political philosophy is not to be divorced from its history. Hegel’s self-image as a ‘modern’ political philosopher, theorising the rational and historic practical realisation of freedom is examined in the chapters that consider Hegel’s appraisal of ancient and modern political philosophy. Hegel’s theory of the modern state is itself an intellectual event in modern history and its meaning unravels in subsequent development and criticism. The essays in this volume that relate Hegel to his successors track a diversity of ways in which Hegel’s political philosophy has been taken, criticised and reformulated.