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Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Part 1: Foundations -- 1. Reconfiguring Spirit -- 2. Group Formation and Divisions in the Young Hegelian School -- Part 2: Religion, Politics, Freedom -- 3. The Metaphysical and Theological Commitments of Idealism: Kant, Hegel, Hegelianism -- 4. Hegel's Philosophy of Religion and the Question of "Right" and "Left" Hegelianism -- 5. Politics, Religion, and Personhood: The Left Hegelians and the Christian German State -- 6. Hegelianism and the Politics of Contingency -- Part 3: Politics, Civil Society, Ethics -- 7. Hegelianism and the Theory of Political Opposition -- 8. Between Hegel and Marx: Eduard Gans on the "Social Question" -- 9. Post-Kantian Perfectionism -- Part 4: Art and the Modern World -- 10. The Aesthetics of the Hegelian School -- 11. Karl Rosenkranz and the "Aesthetics of the Ugly" -- Part 5: Appropriations and Critiques of Hegel -- 12. Some Political Implications of Feuerbach's Theory of Religion -- 13. Max Stirner and the End of Classical German Philosophy -- 14. Ruge and Marx: Democracy, Nationalism, and Revolution in Left Hegelian Debates -- 15. Marx, German Idealism, and Constructivism -- Index -- Contributors

The period leading up to the Revolutions of 1848 was a seminal moment in the history of political thought, demarcating the ideological currents and defining the problems of freedom and social cohesion which are among the key issues of modern politics. This 2006 anthology offers research on Hegel's followers in the 1830s and 1840s. With essays by philosophers, political scientists, and historians from Europe and North America, it pays special attention to questions of state power, the economy, poverty, and labour, as well as to ideas on freedom. The book examines the political and social thought of Eduard Gans, Ludwig Feuerbach, Max Stirner, Bruno and Edgar Bauer, the young Engels, and Marx. It places them in the context of Hegel's philosophy, the Enlightenment, Kant, the French Revolution, industrialization, and urban poverty. It also views Marx and Engels in relation to their contemporaries and interlocutors in the Hegelian school

This is a comprehensive study in English of Bruno Bauer, a leading Hegelian philosopher of the 1840s. Inspired by the philosophy of Hegel, Bauer led an intellectual revolution that influenced Marx and shaped modern secular humanism. In the process he offered a republican alternative to liberalism and socialism, criticized religious and political conservatism and set out the terms for the development of modern mass and industrial society. Based on in-depth archival research this book traces the emergence of republican political thought in Germany before the revolutions of 1848. Professor Moggach examines Bauer's republicanism and his concept of infinite self-consciousness. He also explores the more disturbing aspects of Bauer's critique of modernity, such as his anti-Semitism. This book will be eagerly sought out by professionals in political philosophy, political science and intellectual history

The political ethics of the Hegelian School is characterized by post-Kantian perfectionism, an approach which differs from earlier perfectionist theories because it takes as its object the promotion of freedom and the conditions of its exercise. Ideas of spontaneous or self-initiated activity displace older views of happiness or thriving (eudaimonia), based on fixed conceptionsof human nature. The new theories are also attentive to conflicting interests in emergent modern civil society, and the need to transform its institutions and practices. Two of the variants within this approach in the 1840's are distinguished, those of Bauer and Marx, and their respective metaethical and normative commitments are examined. ; La ética política de la Escuela hegeliana se caracteriza por el perfeccionismo post-kantiano, un enfoque que difiere de las teorías perfeccionistas precedentes en que tiene por objeto la promoción de la libertad y las condiciones de su ejercicio. Las ideas de actividad espontánea o iniciada por sí misma desplazan los puntos de vista antiguos de la felicidad o la prosperidad (eudaimonia), basados en concepciones fijas de la naturaleza humana. Las nuevas teorías están también pendientes de los intereses conflictivos en la sociedad civil moderna emergente y de la necesidad de transformar sus prácticas e instituciones. Dentro de este enfoque se distinguen dos variantes en la década de 1840, las de Bauer y Marx, de las cuales aquí se examinan sus respectivos compromisos normativos y metaéticos.

German republicanism in the period 1790 to 1850 applies the Kantian idea of moral autonomy to political institutions and relations. Recognizing the problem of the diversity and conflict of interests in modern civil society, and the necessity of their political conciliation, two models of republican thought can be distinguished. One holds, with Schiller, that such interests, while giving rise to strife and alienation, are ultimately capable of voluntary mutual adjustment, harmonization, and self-limitation in the properly-constituted state. The other, more rigoristic variant, developed in the 1840's by Bruno Bauer, defends a stringent ideal of self-transformation. Private interests may not be immediately transposed into the political sphere, but must be subject to critique, to determine their admissibility and their compatibility with the requirements of historical progress. Both of these positions represent forms of a new post-Kantian perfectionist ethic aiming to promote personal and political freedom and the conditions for its exercise. ; El republicanismo alemán en el período que va de 1790 a 1850, aplica la idea kantiana de la autonomía moral a las relaciones e instituciones políticas. Pueden distinguirse dos modelos de pensamiento republicano que reconocen el problema de la diversidad y el conflicto de intereses en la sociedad civil moderna, así como la necesidad de su conciliación política. Uno de ellos, el de Schiller, sostiene que tales intereses, a pesar de dar lugar a conflicto y alienación, son, en último término, susceptibles de autolimitación, armonización y ajuste mutuo y voluntario en un Estado bien constituido. El otro, una variante más rigorista, desarrollada en la década de 1840 por Bruno Bauer, defiende un ideal estricto de transformación propia. Los intereses privados no pueden ser traspuestos inmediatamente a la esfera política, sino que han de someterse a la crítica, a la decisión sobre su admisibilidad y compatibilidad con los requisitos del progreso histórico. Ambas posiciones representan formas de una nueva ética perfeccionista post-kantiana que se propone promover la libertad personal y política, así como las condiciones de su ejercicio.

Abstract.This paper explores eighteenth-century German debates on the relation of freedom and perfection in the course of which Kant works out his juridical theory. It contrasts the perfectionist ideas of political activity in Christian Wolff and Karl von Dalberg (a historically important but neglected figure), with Fichte's program inThe Closed Commercial State(1800), distinguishing logics of political intervention. Examining insufficiently recognized aspects of the intellectual context for Kant's distinction between happiness, right and virtue, the paper demonstrates Fichte's (problematic) application of Kantian ideas of freedom to political economy and contests current interpretations of the politically disengaged character or attenuated modernism of German political philosophy in the Enlightenment.Résumé.Ce texte étudie le rapport entre liberté et perfection dans la pensée allemande du dix-huitième siècle. C'est dans le contexte de ces débats que Kant élabore sa propre théorie juridique. En examinant les fondements théoriques de l'intervention politique, le texte fait une distinction entre le perfectionnisme éthique de Christian Wolff et de Karl von Dalberg (personnage historiquement important mais peu étudié), et le programme d'inspiration kantienne proposé par Fichte dans sonÉtat commercial fermé(1800).L'objectif du texte est de reconstruire le contexte intellectuel de la distinction kantienne entre bonheur, droit et vertu, et de démontrer l'usage problématique qu'en fait Fichte dans le domaine de l'économie politique. Le texte remet en question des interprétations récentes qui dévalorisent l'engagement politique et le modernisme des Lumières allemandes.