Hegelian Ethics

“Hegel’s ethical theories, which are largely unknown or misunderstood in English-speaking countries, are introduced in this essay through the medium of Hegel’s criticism of Kant. According to Hegel, Kant concentrated unduly in morals on intention, as opposed to performance; he produced a criterion of right action which by itself can decide nothing; he set up a system in which reason and inclination, the moral agent and the world in which he acts are totally and irrevocably opposed. Professor Walsh explains how in his own ethical theory Hegel sought to overcome these deficiencies, first in his early writings through the notion of a morality of love, and then in his mature system by means of the conception of ‘Concrete Ethics’ (Sittlichkeit), according to which moral practices occur as parts of the life of an actual community and moral rules and restraints are accepted by its members as issuing from an authority which is not alien to themselves. Obvious objections to this idea are investigated, and it is shown that Hegel had answers to at least some of them. It is also made clear that he was working with a moral psychology which is very different from Kant’s, but not for that reason to be dismissed as mistaken. A brief section at the end discusses the contributions to ethics made by British Hegelians, T. H> Green, H. H. Bradley and Bernard Bosanquet.”- Publisher