Hegel’s Groundwork for a Philosophy of Right has become, perhaps, the most widely read of the books he published in his lifetime. Many regard it as a work that stands alongside a handful of others as classics of modern political philosophy. Hegel, of course, did not conceive this work as a stand-alone piece of social and political theorizing, as it was effectively an expansion of the section “Objective Spirit” from the “Philosophy of Spirit”, forming Part Three of the Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences. As such, in structure and content, it was meant to be understood as giving further determination to a conceptually articulated edifice presented in Part One of the Encyclopaedia, “The Science of Logic”. But more than this, as the presentation the Encyclopaedia follows a pattern in which subsequent sections reveal the “truth” of earlier ones, the “truth” of the determinations of Objective Spirit should further be illuminated in the later Encyclopaedia sections on “Absolute Spirit”, treating Art, Religion and Philosophy. This chapter attempts to illuminate Hegel’s ideas concerning objective spirit by examining them in this broader context.

In his Encyclopaedia, Hegel’s section “Objective Spirit” is crucial for our understanding his more elaborated ethical and political philosophy in the Philosophy of Right. The latter assumes a familiarity with key ideas found only in the Encyclopaedia, including (a) a proof of the free will and the need to develop a philosophical account for distinguishing between a free will and an arbitrary will, (b) the wider context of how ethical and political philosophy sits within his philosophical system and (c) its link beyond itself to other parts of Hegel’s philosophy. Unlike other philosophers, Hegel’s work is systematic, and a deeper appreciation of Objective Spirit and its place within the system – made clear in the Encyclopaedia – illuminates crucial ideas in his Philosophy of Right.

This chapter explores the problem of public opinion in Hegel’s Philosophy of Right. I argue that for Hegel, the problem of public opinion is closely related to the problem of ideology critique, representing a departure from the Kantian approach to publicity as a path to enlightenment, and the development of a nascent critical theory. First, I provide an overview of Hegel’s understanding of public opinion by taking up its positive and negative aspects. Hegel’s departure from Kantian themes is clearly discerned in his understanding of the formation and function of public opinion, which traces its origins to the estates, leading to a conflict between private interests based on social status and the public good. With Hegel’s understanding in view, I then assess the extent to which this represents the development of a concept of ideology by drawing on Raymond Geuss’ definition. I show that public opinion has certain epistemic, functional, and genetic features that are connected with ideology, and further, that Hegel’s account of social practices helpfully contributes to contemporary debates. Finally, I turn to the Natural Law essay and argue that Hegel’s objections against empiricism and formalism in political theorizing share important affinities with critical theory.

The Introduction discusses why, to draw out a genuinely critical social theory from Hegel’s thought, we must turn away from his official social and political philosophy in the Philosophy of Right, and instead use the logic of essence in the Science of Logic. The logic of essence, I suggest, does not present a historically invariant ontology, but sets out an ontology that is specific to capitalism. Finally, I introduce the central thesis of the book, namely, that the categories of the logic of essence give expression to the general structure of social domination in capitalism.