Introduction

Any one writing about Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's political theory will have to face the fact that readers will bring with them a huge variety of interpretations and misinterpretations of Hegel, some of them quite absurd. Such as: Hegel was a staunch defender of the autocratic Prussian monarchy. Most of the misinterpretations and misunderstandings come from commentators' attempts to read their own logic and their own theoretical categories and problems into Hegel. "Invariably interpreters have molded Hegel into their own image". Many commentators begin with an assumed distinction between "is" and "ought," fact and value. Either Hegel is describing some existing state or he is arguing for an ideal state that ought to exist and that we ought to try to establish. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.