ABSTRACT
In a famous passage in his Elements of the Philosophy of Right, Hegel claimed that “philosophy is its own time comprehended in thought.” But our time is very different from Hegel’s, so two approaches have developed to understanding the relevance of his work for the contemporary world. One looks to remaining points of contact, such as his criticism of a contractualist views of the state. Another tries to apply his general approach to contemporary issues. Both are valuable, but in this chapter, the latter is taken up, and one aspect of his approach is the focus. The question is: assuming there can be collective intentionality and collective agency (what Hegel calls Geist), how should we understand Hegel’s claim that such group agents can be collectively irrational, self-deceived? And: how would that claim bear on the contemporary political world?
