Hegels Civic Republicanism: Integrating Natural Law with Kants Moral Constructivism

In this book, Westphal offers an original interpretation of Hegels moral philosophy. Building on his previous study of the role of natural law in Humes and Kants accounts of justice, Westphal argues that Hegel developed and justified a robust form of civic republicanism. Westphal identifies, for the first time, the proper genre to which Hegels Philosophical Outlines of Justice belongs and to which it so prodigiously contributes, which he calls Natural Law Constructivism, an approach developed by Hume, Rousseau, Kant, and Hegel. He brings to bear Hegels adoption and augmentation of Kants Critique of rational judgment and justification in all non-formal domains to his moral philosophy in his Outlines. Westphal argues that Hegels justification for the standards of political legitimacy successfully integrates Rousseaus Independence Requirement into the role of public reason within a constitutional republic. In these regards, Hegels moral and political principles are progressive not only in principle, but also in practice. Hegels Civic Republicanism will be of interest to scholars of moral philosophy, social and political philosophy, philosophy of law, Hegel, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century philosophy.