Hegel on Childless Marriage
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24239084 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Thimo Heisenberg (0000-0003-2475-1100, Rice University) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 47 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 243-264 |
| Publication date | 2026-08-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Hegel Bulletin (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2051-5367 • E-ISSN: 2051-5375 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/hgl.2026.10096 |
| OpenAlex | W7222938448 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 17 |
At the beginning of his discussion of childhood and childrearing, Hegel confronts the reader with a provocative view: marriage without children, Hegel argues, is incomplete ( PR : §173, §173Z). It is tempting to disregard this view as yet another old-fashioned thing that Hegel has to say about marriage—yet another example, that is, of one of Hegel’s nineteenth-century convictions that are better left in the past. But in this paper, I want to make the case that Hegel’s view for the incompleteness of childless marriage, despite many shortcomings, contains a grain of truth. This grain of truth consists in the thought that a committed love relationship comes with a general social requirement : to truly care about one another as a couple, we also have to jointly care about somebody else. In that way, romantic love—contrary to appearances—has to always include a social ‘We’.
childhood · childless marriage · Childlessness · Hegel · Parenting · Philosophy of Right · romantic love · social obligations · Marriage and Family Dynamics · Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and Hegel · Philosophy, Sociology, Political Theory
Minimizing MarriageMarriage, Morality, and the Law
Hegel's Ethical Thought
Death in Berlin
Hegel on family property in the rational state
Lieben für den Staat? Über das Dilemma konservativer Familienpolitik
Hegel's Critical Theory and Feminist Concerns
Hegel's Social Philosophy
Hegel on Marriage and Politics
Elements of the Philosophy of Right
| Highly cited | No |
|---|