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Hegel And Marx And Liberalism

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Throughout history, philosophers have been in constant discussion in figuring out a way to respect human rights, while at the same time, preserve a well-ordered society. One of the schools of thought that demonstrate this type of society is liberalism. Liberalism is defined as “a political or social philosophy advocating the freedom of the individual, parliamentary systems of government, nonviolent modification of political, social, or economic institutions to assure unrestricted development in all spheres of human endeavor, and governmental guarantees of individual rights and civil liberties” (Dictionary, 2017). Although most philosophers such as Immanuel Kant believe a society can be fully emancipated through the political thought of …show more content…

For instance, when an individual thinks to himself “I will”, that is just the abstract thought, it is content without identity. As a result, Hegel states we need to overcome the subjectivity of liberalism, and alter the subjective into an objective system of freedom. This system of freedom will contain an organic system of customs and institutions where the right of individuals is integrated to a system, which enables individuals in having a free fulfilled life. In this way, the rights of individuals and subjects are objective in the sense that they are integrated into a type of system and are clearly outlined, as opposed to having a subjective sense, where the rights of persons are changeable and can easily be overcome. With that said, Hegel says individuals can be fully free only when they participate in what Hegel refers to as “the ethical life”. Ethical life is defined as a system of norms created through the domain of social interaction and interdependence in which every individual is embedded in. In other words, ethical life is a deeper designation of the morality that people define through contracts and exchanges which reflects a type of respect between individuals. However, while the way of morality achieves the opposite of what it sets out to do, ethical life is exactly what morality ought to be; a set of practices that guides individuals in their

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