ABSTRACT
Property has signal importance in G. W. F. Hegel's Philosophy of Right. Hegel himself suggests property's importance by beginning his substantive text with the issue of property. This chapter looks at three aspects of property in "Abstract Right": the logical status of "Abstract Right" itself, the connection between property and personality, and the distinctions about alienation in the opening discussions. Beyond the limits of "Abstract Right," Hegel's discussions of property in "Ethical Life” continue to involve precise distinctions and careful attention to circumstances—of the thing that is the property, the human beings and their Bildung or development, and the institutional context. As those distinctions and circumstances require, the characteristics defining property in abstract right are modified in Sittlichkeit. Because property's characteristics, attendant distinctions, and circumstances are important in every major area of ethical life, as they treat different dimensions of civil society, the family, and the state.
