Abstract

Hegel's philosophy of politics, according to Brod, is to be found primarily in the third part of the Philosophy of Right, supplemented by Hegel's historical writings and his philosophy of history. All of these need to be read in the context of some knowledge of contemporary political events. This approach to the Philosophy of Right sets aside the question of how Hegel construed the unity of his own text and project, in order to use a portion of the text as a means of answering a set of questions which the author has framed as a relevant context for focusing on just that portion. The context tacitly invoked by Brod would appear to be something like standard Western political theory of the modern period, perhaps as represented by Sabine's classic commentary. The project of the book might be characterized as making Hegel's political philosophy intelligible to someone raised on Sabine's categories. At one point the author refers to Sabine's opinion that in the Philosophy of Right, "the arrangement [of topics] hopelessly dislocated the subject matter". Brod clearly anticipates that his more informed reading of Hegel will render it more intelligible to an audience reared in the Sabine tradition. Such a project is not unworthy of attention, but it seems to me that the author's efforts achieve only mixed success.