From Rechtsphilosophie to Staatsökonomie

Hegel and the philosophical foundations of political economy

Bibliographic Data

ID21603261
AuthorsBernardo Ferro (0000-0003-1161-5476, Department of Philosophy University of Warwick Coventry UK, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume31
Issue1
Pages80-96
Publication date2023-03-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEuropean Journal of Philosophy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0966-8373 • E-ISSN: 1468-0378
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/ejop.12784
OpenAlexW4225161309
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited16

Although Hegel is increasingly recognized as an important figure in the history of political economy, his economic views are never strictly economic. In contrast to other modern thinkers, his primary concern is not the economic efficacy of different practices or institutions but the extent to which they enable and promote the development of human freedom. In this article, I argue that Hegel's pioneering critique of modern liberal economy plays out simultaneously at a more empirical level, corresponding to the properly economic dimension of his analysis, and at a deeper, logical level, which grounds and guides his position. Moreover, I argue that the tendency to favour the first of these levels, found in most of the literature on Hegel's economic thought, reduces the Philosophy of Right's main argument to a more or less vigorous plea for economic interventionism. Against this kind of reading, I show that a renewed focus on the text's logical structure reveals a different and more radical philosophical proposition, which has yet to be fully acknowledged. In particular, I argue that Hegel's dialectical logic leads him beyond the liberalism‐interventionism debate, towards a qualitatively different conception of social and economic relations

Classical liberalism · Dialectic · Economic liberalism · Economics · Epistemology · Hegelianism · International relations · Liberalism · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Economic and Social Issues · Law · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Philosophy · Political Economy and Marxism

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