Positive Liberty

G. W. F. Hegel wrote famously daunting prose, but the ideas he advocates are surprisingly familiar. Once you know what Hegelian thinking looks like, you’ll see the stuff everywhere. Indeed, putting Hegel into plain language reveals a worldview that many people will recognize and claim that they had been holding all along, and if they are encouraged to read Hegel with a patient guide helping them out, they will find in him a confirmation of all sorts of beliefs that they already subscribe to.

Such are the risks we run. It is my own belief that Hegel represents nearly everything that libertarians have always fought against, and that they are right to do so. Ayn Rand thought Immanuel Kant was the most dangerous philosopher of all time, but I’d choose Hegel, myself: He stands nearly at the origin of modern collectivism, and his way of thinking seems more frequently encountered today than that of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the great anti-individualist of the Enlightenment.

Let’s start at the beginning, then, with the foundational concepts. Continue Reading »