Determination of man in Hegel’s Elements of the Philosophy of Right

Abstract

The article focuses on the question of elementary determination of man i. e. of individual in Hegel’s Elements of the Philosophy of Right. Hegel distinguishes on laws of right and laws of nature which means that man is not only a creature of nature but also a spiritual creature, a creature endowed with a will which is for Hegel allways rational and free. From that follows that man insofar he or she is a spiritual creature cannot satisfy itself with a being-in-itself, he or she must step out of “naturalness” into “division of its concept and its immediate being”. For Hegel man is by its very nature evil – the consequence of this definition is the demand to make steps against its very nature with which man becomes what he or she is. Man demonstates the freedom of the will by its activity, the ultimate frame of activity is given by speech as the medium of “actualisation of freedom” which follows from the very definition of man as a creature of will.