The Right Hegelians (german: Rechtshegelianer), Old Hegelians (''Althegelianer''), or the Hegelian Right (''die Hegelsche Rechte''), were those followers of
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
philosopher
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends ...
in the early 19th century who took his philosophy in a politically and religiously
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
direction. They are typically contrasted with the
Young Hegelians
The Young Hegelians (german: Junghegelianer), or Left Hegelians (''Linkshegelianer''), or the Hegelian Left (''die Hegelsche Linke''), were a group of German intellectuals who, in the decade or so after the death of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel ...
(Hegelian Left), who interpreted Hegel's
political philosophy
Political philosophy or political theory is the philosophical study of government, addressing questions about the nature, scope, and legitimacy of public agents and institutions and the relationships between them. Its topics include politics, ...
as supportive of left-wing and progressive politics or religion.
Overview
Hegel's
historicism
Historicism is an approach to explaining the existence of phenomena, especially social and cultural practices (including ideas and beliefs), by studying their history, that is, by studying the process by which they came about. The term is widely ...
holds that both ideas and institutions can only be understood by understanding their history. Throughout his life, Hegel said he was an
orthodox
Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to:
Religion
* Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...
Lutheran
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...
. He devoted considerable attention to
the Absolute
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...
, his term for the infinite Spirit responsible for the totality of reality—something like God, though not the God of classical theism. This Spirit comes to fullest expression in the historical reality of the modern state. In his ''Philosophy of Right'', Hegel writes that:
The Hegelian right expanded this conception of
statism
In political science, statism is the doctrine that the political authority of the state is legitimate to some degree. This may include economic and social policy, especially in regard to taxation and the means of production.
While in use s ...
, seizing on it as an affirmation of establishment politics and orthodox religion. Hegel's historicism could be read to affirm the historical inevitability of modern institutions; a
nation
A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective Identity (social science), identity of a group of people unde ...
was an
Ideal
Ideal may refer to:
Philosophy
* Ideal (ethics), values that one actively pursues as goals
* Platonic ideal, a philosophical idea of trueness of form, associated with Plato
Mathematics
* Ideal (ring theory), special subsets of a ring considere ...
, existing in Hegelian
idealism
In philosophy, the term idealism identifies and describes metaphysical perspectives which assert that reality is indistinguishable and inseparable from perception and understanding; that reality is a mental construct closely connected t ...
above and about the people who constituted it. To argue for political change was to attack the Ideal of the national state. The Right Hegelians believed that advanced
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
an societies, as they existed in the first half of the nineteenth century, were the summit of all social development, the product of the historical
dialectic that had existed thus far. Most praised the Prussian state, which enjoyed an extensive
civil service system, good universities,
industrialization, and high
employment, as the acme of progress and the incarnation of the ''
Zeitgeist
In 18th- and 19th-century German philosophy, a ''Zeitgeist'' () ("spirit of the age") is an invisible agent, force or Daemon dominating the characteristics of a given epoch in world history.
Now, the term is usually associated with Georg W. ...
''.
Many of the members of the Hegelian right went on to have distinguished careers in public academia or the Lutheran Church. As a school, they were closely associated with the
University of Berlin
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative ...
, and held many of the chairs of philosophy and theology there. Generally, the philosophers of the Hegelian right have been neglected; their fame, if not their reputations, has been eclipsed by the
Young Hegelians
The Young Hegelians (german: Junghegelianer), or Left Hegelians (''Linkshegelianer''), or the Hegelian Left (''die Hegelsche Linke''), were a group of German intellectuals who, in the decade or so after the death of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel ...
, including
Bruno Bauer and
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
. They left their mark chiefly in theology. Their efforts did not have the intended effect of bolstering a sense of the inevitability of faith as a product of history; rather, they pioneered the introduction of
higher criticism by demonstrating the influence of an era on the development of Christianity. Other members of the Hegelian Right included the Erlangen School of
Neo-Lutherans, whose influence continues to the present day in
confessional Lutheranism
Confessional Lutheranism is a name used by Lutherans to designate those who believe in the doctrines taught in the ''Book of Concord'' of 1580 (the Lutheran confessional documents) in their entirety. Confessional Lutherans maintain that faithfulne ...
.
Recent studies have questioned the paradigm of Left- and Right-Hegelianism. No Hegelians of the period ever referred to themselves as "Right Hegelians", which was a term of insult originated by
David Strauss
David Friedrich Strauss (german: link=no, Strauß ; 27 January 1808 – 8 February 1874) was a German liberal Protestant theologian and writer, who influenced Christian Europe with his portrayal of the "historical Jesus", whose divine nature he ...
, a self-styled Left Hegelian. Critiques of Hegel offered by the Left Hegelians radically diverted Hegel's thinking into new directions and eventually came to form a large part of the literature on and about Hegel.
Speculative theism
Speculative theism was an 1830s movement closely related to but distinguished from Right Hegelianism. Its proponents (
Immanuel Hermann Fichte
Immanuel Hermann Fichte (; ; ennobled as Immanuel Hermann von Fichte in 1863; 18 July 1796 – 8 August 1879) was a German philosopher and son of Johann Gottlieb Fichte. In his philosophy, he was a theist and strongly opposed to the Hegelian Schoo ...
,
Christian Hermann Weisse,
Hermann Ulrici) were united in their demand to recover the "
personal God
A personal god, or personal goddess, is a deity who can be related to as a person, instead of as an impersonal force, such as the Absolute, "the All", or the "Ground of Being".
In the scriptures of the Abrahamic religions, God is described as b ...
" after
panlogist Hegelianism. The movement featured elements of
anti-psychologism In logic, anti-psychologism (also logical objectivism or logical realism) is a theory about the nature of logical truth, that it does not depend upon the contents of human ideas but exists independent of human ideas.
Overview
The anti-psychologisti ...
in the
historiography of philosophy.
[William R. Woodward, ''Hermann Lotze: An Intellectual Biography'', Cambridge University Press, 2015, pp. 74–5.]
People
Philosophers within the camp of the Hegelian right include:
*
Johann Philipp Gabler
Johann Philipp Gabler (4 June 1753 – 17 February 1826) was a German Protestant Christian theologian of the school of Johann Jakob Griesbach and Johann Gottfried Eichhorn.
Gabler was born at Frankfurt-am-Main. In 1772 he entered the University ...
*
Hermann Friedrich Wilhelm Hinrichs
Hermann Friedrich Wilhelm Hinrichs (22 April 1794 – 17 September 1861) was a German right Hegelian philosopher.
Biography
Hinrichs was the son of a Protestant pastor. He studied theology at Strassburg, and, following a crisis of faith, philos ...
*
Karl Daub
Karl Daub (20 March 176522 November 1836) was a German Protestant theologian.
Biography
He was born at Kassel. He studied philosophy, philology and theology at Marburg in 1786, and eventually (1795) became professor ordinarius of theology at t ...
*
Heinrich Leo
*
Leopold von Henning Leopold August Wilhelm Dorotheus von Henning (originally von Henning auf Schönhoff; 4 October 1791 – 5 October 1866) was a German philosopher associated with the Hegelian Right.
Biography
Leopold von Henning was born in Gotha in 1791 to Col ...
*
Heinrich Gustav Hotho
Other thinkers or historians who may be included among the Hegelian right, with some reservations, include:
*
Johann Karl Friedrich Rosenkranz
*
Eduard Gans
Eduard Gans (March 22, 1797 – May 5, 1839) was a German jurist.
Biography
Gans was born in Berlin to prosperous Jewish parents. He studied law first at the Friedrich Wilhelm University, Berlin, then at Göttingen, and finally at Heidelberg, w ...
*
Karl Ludwig Michelet
Karl Ludwig Michelet (4 December 1801 – 15 December 1893)
was a German Philip Marheineke
Philip Konrad Marheineke (May 1, 1780, Hildesheim – May 31, 1846, Berlin), was a German Protestant church leader within the Evangelical Church in Prussia.
Life
He was born at Hildesheim, Bishopric of Hildesheim, and studied at the University ...
*
Wilhelm Vatke
*
Johann Eduard Erdmann
Johann Eduard Erdmann (13 June 1805 – 12 June 1892) was a German religious pastor, historian of philosophy, and philosopher of religion, of which he wrote on the mediation of faith and knowledge. He was known to be a follower of Friedrich Schleie ...
*
Eduard Zeller
Eduard Gottlob Zeller (; 22 January 1814, Kleinbottwar19 March 1908, Stuttgart) was a German philosopher and Protestant theologian of the Tübingen School of theology. He was well known for his writings on Ancient Greek philosophy, especiall ...
*
Albert Schwegler
Albert Schwegler (10 February 18195 January 1857) was a German philosopher and Protestant theologian.
Biography
Schwegler was born at Michelbach in Württemberg, the son of a country pastor. He entered the University of Tübingen in 1836, and w ...
*
Hans Lassen Martensen
Hegelian theologians
Rationalistic
*
Karl Daub
Karl Daub (20 March 176522 November 1836) was a German Protestant theologian.
Biography
He was born at Kassel. He studied philosophy, philology and theology at Marburg in 1786, and eventually (1795) became professor ordinarius of theology at t ...
*
Philip Marheineke
Philip Konrad Marheineke (May 1, 1780, Hildesheim – May 31, 1846, Berlin), was a German Protestant church leader within the Evangelical Church in Prussia.
Life
He was born at Hildesheim, Bishopric of Hildesheim, and studied at the University ...
*
David Strauss
David Friedrich Strauss (german: link=no, Strauß ; 27 January 1808 – 8 February 1874) was a German liberal Protestant theologian and writer, who influenced Christian Europe with his portrayal of the "historical Jesus", whose divine nature he ...
*
Ferdinand Christian Baur
Ferdinand Christian Baur (21 June 1792 – 2 December 1860) was a German Protestant theologian and founder and leader of the (new) Tübingen School of theology (named for the University of Tübingen where Baur studied and taught). Following Hegel ...
*
Richard Adelbert Lipsius
Richard Adelbert Lipsius (14 February 1830 in Gera, Thuringia – 19 August 1892 in Jena, Thuringia) was a German Protestant theologian.
Biography
Richard Adelbert Lipsius was the son of K. H. A. Lipsius (d. 1861), who was rector of the school ...
*
Otto Pfleiderer
Otto Pfleiderer (1 September 1839 – 18 July 1908) was a German Protestant theologian. Through his writings and his lectures, he became known as one of the most influential representatives of liberal theology.
Biography
Pfleiderer was born at S ...
Erlangen school
Neo-Lutheranism was a 19th-century revival movement within Lutheranism which began with the Pietist-driven '' Erweckung,'' or ''Awakening'', and developed in reaction against theological rationalism and pietism. This movement followed the Old Lu ...
*
G. C. A. von Harless
*
J. W. F. Höfling
*
Gottfried Thomasius Gottfried Thomasius (26 June 1802 – 24 January 1875) was a German Lutheran theologian. He was born in Egenhausen (in present-day Middle Franconia) and he died in Erlangen.
He studied philosophy and theology in Erlangen, Halle and Berlin, and as ...
*
J. C. K. von Hofmann
*
Franz Delitzsch
Franz Delitzsch (23 February 1813, in Leipzig – 4 March 1890, in Leipzig) was a German Lutheran theologian and Hebraist. Delitzsch wrote many commentaries on books of the Bible, Jewish antiquities, Biblical psychology, as well as a history of ...
*
K. F. A. Kahnis
*
Theodosius Harnack
*
C. E. Luthardt
*
F. H. R. von Frank
*
Paul Althaus
Paul Althaus (4 February 1888 – 18 May 1966) was a German Lutheran theologian. He was born in Obershagen in the Province of Hanover, and he died in Erlangen. He held various pastorates from 1914 to 1925, when he was appointed associate professo ...
*
Werner Elert
See also
*
Ritter School
References
External links
Hegelianismus – cpw-online.de{{Authority control
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Hegelianism