ABSTRACT
One-dimensional character of Immanuel Kant's self-reflexive categorical imperative, G. W. F. Hegel considers the idea of freedom in terms rather of an inter-subjective, social reciprocity. Hegel's idea of the world spirit is developed from those concepts of universal history and human progress evident in Kant's article, 'Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose'. The universal laws of the nation-state are the objective morality through which individual subjects recognize themselves as socially equal to others. The two major domains of modern ethical life, as Hegel presents them, are the family and civil society. Critical of Hegel's claim concerning the historical actuality of social freedom, Marx points to the historical discontinuities of poverty and suffering, the social injustices, which negate that universal claim. Hegel's idea of the world spirit is developed from those concepts of universal history and human progress evident in Kant's article, 'Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose'.
