Method and System in Hegel’s Philosophy of Right

This chapter argues that there is no substantive issue involved in the alleged controversy between “systematic” and “non-systematic” readers of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right . The source of the supposed issues is that accused of “non-systematic” readings are merely doing what any responsible historian of philosophy must do: they separate questions about what a historical philosopher thought from questions about how it may be appropriated today. The chapter then goes on to provide a positive account of the actual role played by Hegel’s system and method in his social theory, and describes Hegel’s systematic method and its application to the Philosophy of Right. It presents Hegel’s creative use of Fichte’s synthetic method, his rejection of the traditional conception of systematic philosophy in favor of conceptual pluralism, and the application of the Hegelian conceptions of method and system to the philosophical understanding of modern society.

Epistemology · Hegelianism · Pluralism (philosophy) · Philosophy · Political Economy and Marxism · Political Philosophy and Ethics