ABSTRACT
In the Principles of the Philosophy of Right Hegel claims that man has the power to ‘transform his first nature into a second, spiritual nature, in order that every spiritual element becomes for him something habitual’.1 Man’s potential to duplicate his nature emerges from this as the defining anthropological attribute. Does this mean that the ability to develop habits is sufficient on its own to distinguish a ‘proper of man’ within the element of living things?2
