Hegel and the Freedom of Moderns

Domenico Losurdo is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Urbino and President of the International Hegel-Marx Society for Dialectical Thought. He is the author of numerous books in Italian.

“Hegel and the Freedom of Moderns constitutes an extremely valuable and original contribution to the study of the genealogy of modernity and of bourgeois culture.”-Joseph A. Buttigieg, editor, The Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci “Domenico Losurdo is one of the great contemporary authorities on Hegel; his work needs to be known in the English-speaking world.”-Fredric Jameson, Duke University

• Translators’ Note xiiHegel Source Abbreviations xv Preface to the Italian Edition xvii ONE. A Liberal, Secret Hegel? I. Searching for the “Authentic” Hegel 31. Censorship and Self-Censorship 32. Linguistic Self-Censorship and Theoretical Compromise 93. Private Dimension and Philosophical Dimension 144. Hegel...a Mason? 165. Esoteric and Exoteric History 206. Philosophical Arguments and Political “Facts” 237. An Interpretative “Misunderstanding” or a Real Contradiction? 26II. The Philosophies of Right: A Turning Point or Continuity 321. Reason and Actuality 322. The Power of Sovereign 393. One Turn, Two Turns, or No Turn at All 46TWO. Hegel, Marx, and the Liberal Tradition III. Contractualism and the Modern State 531. Anticontractualism=Antiliberalism? 532. Contractualism and the Doctrine of Natural Law 563. Liberal Anticontractualism 584. The Celebration of Nature and the Ideology of Reactionism 605. Hegel and Feudal, Proto-Bourgeois Contractualism 646. Contractualism and the Modern State 67IV Conservative or Liberal? A False Dilemma 711. Bobbio’s Dilemma 712. Authority and Freedom 723. State and Individual 784. The Right to Resistance 835. The Right of Extreme Need and Individual Rights 876. Formal and Substantive Freedom 907. Interpretative Categories and Ideological Presuppositions 92V Hegel and the Liberal Tradition: Two Opposing Interpretations of History 961. Hegel and Revolutions 962. Revolutions from the Bottom-Up or from the Top-Down 1003. Revolution According to the Liberal Tradition 1034. Patricians and Plebeians 1075. Monarchy and Republic 1116. The Repression of the Aristocracy and the March Toward Freedom 1137. Anglophobia and Anglophilia 1168. Hegel, England, and the Liberal Tradition 1189. Equality and Freedom 120VI The Intellectual, Property, and the Social Question 1241. Theoretical Categories and Immediate Political Options 1242. The Individual and Institutions 1283. Institutions and the Social Question 1314. Labor and Otium 133 5. Intellectuals and Property-Owners 1386. Property and Political Representations 1417. Intellectuals and Craftsmen 1428. A Banausic, Plebeian Hegel? 1459. The Social Question and Industrial Society 148THREE. Legitimacy and Contradictions of Modernity VII Right, Violence, and Notrecht 1531. War and the Right to Property: Hegel and Locke 1532. From the Ius Necessitatis to the Right of Extreme Need 1553. The Contradictions of Modern Economic Development 1574. Notrecht and Self-Defense: Locke, Fichte, and Hegel 1605. “Negative Judgment,””Negatively Infinite Judgment,” and “Rebellion” 1636. Notrecht, Ancien Regime, and Modernity 1667. The Starving Man and the Slave 1698. Ius Necessitatis, Ius Resistentiae, Notrecht 1719. The Conflicts of Right with Moral Intention and Extreme Need 17210. An Unsolved Problem 177VII “Agora” and “Schole”: Rousseau, Hegel, and the Liberal Tradition 1801. The Image of Ancient Times in France and Germany 1802. Cynics, Monks, Quakers, Anabaptist, and Sansculottes 1813. Rousseau, the “Poor People’s Grudge,” and Jacobinism 1834. Politics and Economics in Rousseau and Hegel 1865. The Social Question and Taxation 1896. State, Contract, and Joint-Stock Company 1937. Christianity, Human Rights, and the Community of Citoyens 1958. The Liberal Tradition and Criticism of Rousseau and Hegel 1999. Defense of the Individual and Criticism of Liberalism 200IX School, Division of Labor, and Modern Man’s Freedom 2041. School, State, and the French Revolution 2042. Compulsory Education and Freedom of Conscience 2063. School, State, Church, and Family 2104. The Rights of Children 2135. School, Stability, and Social Mobility 2156. Professions and the Division of Labor 2207. Division of Labor and Banality of Modernity: Schelling, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche 222X Moral Tension and the Primacy of Politics 2252. Inconclusiveness and Narcissism in Moral-Religious Precepts 2263. Modern World and the Restriction of Moral Sphere 2284. Hegel and Kant 2305. Hegel, Schleiermach, and the Liberal Tradition 2316. Hegel, Burke, and Neo-Aristotelian Conservatism 2347. Hegel, Aristotle, and the Rejection of Solipsistic Escape 2378. The French Revolution and the Celebration of Ethicality 2389. Morality, Ethically, and Modern Freedom 24110. Hegel’s Ethical Model and Contemporary Actuality 243XI Legitimacy of the Modern and Rationality of the Actual 2461. The “Querelle de Anciens, des Modernes,” . . and of the Ancient Germans 2462. Rejection of Modernity, Cult of Heroes, and Anti-Hegelian Polemic 2473. Kant, Kleist, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche 2504. Modernity and the Uneasiness of Liberal Tradition 2535. Philistinism, Statism, and Modern Standardization 2566. The Rationality of the Actual and the Difficult Balance between Legitimation and Criticism of Modernity 260FOUR. The Western World, Liberalism, and the Interpretation of Hegel’s Thought XII The Second Thirty Years War and the “Philosophical Crusade” against Germany 2671. Germans, “Goths,” “Huns,” and “Vandals” 2672. The Great Western Purge 2683. The Transformation of the Liberal Western World 2724. An Imaginary Western World, an Imaginary Germany 2765. Hegel Faces the Western Tribunal 2796. Ilting and the Liberal Rehabilitation of Hegel 2827. Lukacs and the Burden of National Stereotypes 286XII Liberalism, Conservatism, the French Revolution, and Classic German Philosophy 2901. Allegmeinheit and Egalite 2902. The English Origins of German Conservatism 2923. A Selective Anglophilia 2964. Tracing the Origins of Social Darwinism and Fascist Ideology 2975. Beyond National Stereotypes 2996. Burke and the History of European Liberalism 3007. Burke’s School of Thought and Classic German Philosophy 3028. Hegel and the Legacy of t