[ Concept of the Philosophy of Right, of the Will, Freedom, and Right. I ]

[ Concept of the Philosophy of Right, of the Will, Freedom, and Right. I ]

1. The subject-matter of the philosophical science of right is the
Idea of right, i.e. the concept of right together with the actualization of that concept.

Philosophy has to do with Ideas, and therefore not with what are commonly dubbed ' mere concepts '.

On the contrary, it exposes such concepts as one-sided and false, while showing at the same time that it is the concept alone ( not the mere abstract category of the understanding which we often hear called by the name ) which has actuality, and further that it gives this actuality to itself.

All else, apart from this actuality established through the working of the concept itself, is ephemeral existence, external contingency, opinion, unsubstantial appearance, falsity, illusion, and so forth.

The shapes which the concept assumes in the course of its actualization are indispensable for the knowledge of the concept itself.

They are the second essential moment of the Idea, in distinction from the first, i.e. from its form, from its mode of being as concept alone. 2 [A.]