ABSTRACT
This chapter is an attempt to rethink the present status of the bourgeoisie. The universal class described by Hegel in Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts (Elements of the Philosophy of Right) was supposed to mediate between the extreme terms of ethical totality: the selfish aspirations of individuals and the general form of the state. The universal class should be associated with the emancipation of the bourgeoisie and the emergence of modern culture. The eventual death of this class would be the annihilation of the universal class. The chapter refers to the theses formulated, inter alia, by Frank Ruda in Hegel's Rabble: An Investigation into Hegel's Philosophy of Right. It also discusses the diagnosis that the disappearance of the universal class may have unexpected consequences: if the lumpen-proletarians succumb to the bourgeoisie, the bourgeoisie has also been subjected to lumpen-proletarisation. The author attempts to understand both possibilities’ social and political consequences: the absorption of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie and the absorption of the bourgeoisie by the proletariat. Finally, he tries to rethink the concept of ‘inter-class’.
