20 Pages Posted: 14 Feb 2014 Last revised: 25 Jun 2014

Date Written: February 14, 2014

Abstract

G. W. F. Hegel’s Philosophy of Right is widely considered to be one of the most important contributions to the history of political philosophy, but also among the more complex. This chapter explains the central ideas to this ground-breaking work in an accessible approach that keeps technical terminology to a minimum. My aim is to clarify the distinctiveness of Hegel’s project and illuminate its widely influential discussions about freedom, recognition, the individual’s relation to the state and punishment to provide readers with a clear understanding of the Philosophy of Right within Hegel’s philosophical system through a close reading of this text.