1st Edition

Hegel’s Civic Republicanism Integrating Natural Law with Kant’s Moral Constructivism

By Kenneth Westphal Copyright 2020
    348 Pages
    by Routledge

    348 Pages
    by Routledge

    In this book, Westphal offers an original interpretation of Hegel’s moral philosophy. Building on his previous study of the role of natural law in Hume’s and Kant’s accounts of justice, Westphal argues that Hegel developed and justified a robust form of civic republicanism. Westphal identifies, for the first time, the proper genre to which Hegel’s Philosophical Outlines of Justice belongs and to which it so prodigiously contributes, which he calls Natural Law Constructivism, an approach developed by Hume, Rousseau, Kant, and Hegel. He brings to bear Hegel’s adoption and augmentation of Kant’s Critique of rational judgment and justification in all non-formal domains to his moral philosophy in his Outlines. Westphal argues that Hegel’s justification for the standards of political legitimacy successfully integrates Rousseau’s Independence Requirement into the role of public reason within a constitutional republic. In these regards, Hegel’s moral and political principles are progressive not only in principle, but also in practice. Hegel’s Civic Republicanism will be of interest to scholars of moral philosophy, social and political philosophy, philosophy of law, Hegel, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century philosophy.

    Introduction

    1 Hegel’s Moral Philosophy: a Conspectus

    2 Modern Moral Epistemology

    3 Natural Law Constructivism: Hobbes, Hume & Rousseau

    4 Kant, Aristotle & our Fidelity to Reason

    5 Kant, Hegel & our Fate as Zoôn Politikon

    6 Hegel’s Justification of the Human Right to Non-Domination

    7 Hegel, Natural Law & Moral Constructivism

    8 The Analytical & Justificatory Structure of Hegel’s Philosophical Outlines of Justice

    9 Hegel’s Standards of Political Legitimacy

    10 The Centrality of Public Reason in Hegel’s Civic Republicanism

    11 Hegel’s Civic Republicanism: Progressive Principles & Practices

    Biography

    Kenneth R. Westphal is Professor of Philosophy at Boðaziçi University, Istanbul. He has authored or edited 12 books, including How Hume and Kant Reconstruct Natural Law: Justifying Strict Objectivity without Debating Moral Realism (2016) and Realism, Science, and Pragmatism (Routledge, 2014).