The march of the Hegelian rational state: a reflection on the multiple moments of the unity of spirit

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to reflect about the Hegelian concept of state, analyzing its main elements or moments, not without observing the peculiarity of the Hegelian system, the rational character of the state. A careful reader can notice in Hegel a permanent preoccupation for the paradox which had already disturbed Parmenides, namely that of the one and the multiple. Well, the Hegelian state aims to conciliate the multiplicity of the particularities, in their subjectivity, with the objective unity of the communitarian order. Being a modern thinker, Hegel stresses the importance of the particularity in the composition of the organic whole of the state; but, on the other side, rescuing a lot of ancient concepts, both from Plato and Aristotle, Hegel doesn’t stop demanding that the disposition of these particularities be directed to the universality of the objective organic body.