Ethics as Complete System of Ideas for Hegel
From “Early Writings¨ in The Hegel Reader
Since the whole of metaphysics falls for the future within moral theory[sic]—of which Kant with his pair of practical postulates has given only an example[sic], and not exhausted[sic] it, this Ethics will be nothing less than a complete system of all Ideas [Ideen][sic] or of all practical postulates (which is the same thing).
According to Hegel here, all of metaphysics–the study of the structure of reality or nature of being–in the future has to occur within the scope of what he is calling “moral theory.¨ Kant’s pair of practical postulates are only an example of either this moral theory or this metaphysics falling within its scope. When referring to Kant’s pair of practical postulates, Hegel is likely referring to the hypothetical imperative v. categorical imperative.
Hegel later states that Ethics will be “a complete system of all Ideas¨ or a complete system “of all practical postulates,¨ even parenthetically asserting that these are “the same thing¨ (Hegel 1998, 28). Provided moral theory and ethics are used here interchangeably, this makes it likely that Kant’s “pair of practical postulates¨ is actually an example of ethics as understood this way, such that it is simultaneously ethics / moral theory and metaphysics, insofar as metaphysics here is understood as having its object be “Ideas¨ (hence ethics as “system of Ideas¨). This suggests that Hegel subscribes to idealism, wherein ideas comprise or constitute reality or existence.
Hegelian idealism as dual aspect substance monism
What is interesting here is that the most charitable interpretation of Hegel’s statement that Ideas and practical postulates are “the same¨ is that Ideas themselves have some intrinsic relation to practice or action such that action and Ideas are of, or derived from, the same substance.
The Ideas
What does Hegel mean by “Idea¨? And what possible reasons could Hegel have to regard Ideas and practical postulates as intimately related, or, as he says, “the same¨?
Hegelianism Georg_Friedrich_Wilhelm_Hegel Georg_FW_Hegel Georg_Hegel hypothesis category categorical_imperative hypothetical_imperative moral_theory postulate practical_postulate absolute_idealism quiddity philosophy_of_action substance_monism monism ontology philosophy morality essence
bibliography
- Houlgate, Stephen, ed. “Early Writings.” In The Hegel Reader, 23-44. Blackwell Readers. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 1998.