Hegel's Problematic
Hegel's Problematic
This chapter addresses Hegel's problematic. First, it explains Hegel's notion of a prehistorical or prelegal stateless ethos. Hegel privileges two factors: the similarity of the natural being with an animal and the characteristics of the barbarian. Second, it isolates Hegel's hierarchy of societies. In this context, Hegel identifies various levels of barbarism, he elaborates the nature of legal consciousness in a barbaric society, and he emphasizes how progress materializes in civilization. Third, it connects Hegel's notion of civilization to the legitimacy of a modern legal order. Fourth, it contextualizes historically the problematic in the troubled stateless condition of Germany in his own times. Finally, it elaborates why Hegel recognizes the modern state-centric legal order as the highest form of civilization.
Keywords: stateless ethos, natural being, barbarian, hierarchy of societies, legal consciousness, civilization, legal order, Germany, Hegel
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