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Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel: State
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According to Hegel, war is an "ethical moment" in the life of a nation-state and hence is neither purely accidental nor an inherent evil. Because there is no higher earthly power ruling over nation-states, and because these entities are oriented to preserving their existence and sovereignty, conflicts leading to war are inevitable. Also, defense of one's nation is an ethical duty and the ultimate test of one's patriotism is war. "Sacrifice on behalf of the individuality of the state is the substantial tie between the state and all its members and so is a universal duty" (ΒΆ 325). In making a sacrifice for the sake of the state individuals prove their courage, which involves a transcendence of concern with egoistic interests and mere material existence. "The intrinsic worth of courage as a disposition of mind is to be found in the genuine absolute, final end, the sovereignty of the state.
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What characterizes Hegel's project as modern is that he subscribes to a conception of a self as a self-defining subject; this entails a set of claims. Rights and duties are grounded on the notion of free will; the most important right and duty is the right and duty the self has to itself to realize its essential freedom. Respect of each individual is expressed in the inviolability of the right and duty to realize one's freedom. Freedom must be understood as the identity of rights and duties, an identity which is realized only in the ethical state. The institutions of the state must be authenticated by the individuals; only a rational state can realize freedom and be authenticated. Since Hegel predicates his conception of ethical life on the self-determining powers of the self, all rights and duties that an individual acquires in the state must be in accordance with the concept of the fundamental right to freedom as being inviolable.
Popper suggested that Hegel's system forms a thinly veiled justification for the rule of Frederick William III, and that Hegel's idea of the ultimate goal of history is to reach a state approximating that of 1830s Prussia. In The Open Society and Its Enemies, he argued that Hegel's philosophy eventually inspired both Marxism and fascism.[25]
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