Idealism: background, statement, merits and limitations; Kant, Hegel and T. H. Green

1. Meaning

Idealism (also called the absolutist, metaphysical or philosophical theory of the State) holds that the State is a natural and moral institution, the highest expression of human reason, and that the individual realises his true self only as a member of it. The State is an end in itself, or at least the necessary condition of the good life, and its claim on the individual is a moral claim.

2. Background

• Greek roots. Plato (the State as the soul writ large; justice as harmony) and Aristotle (the State exists for the sake of the good life; man is by nature a political animal; the State is prior to the individual as the whole is prior to the part).
• Rousseau. The general will (The Social Contract, 1762): the will of the community directed to the common good. A person who obeys it obeys his own real will and may be “forced to be free”.
• German philosophy. Kant, Fichte and Hegel developed idealism in a Germany divided into many small States, where national unity seemed to require a strong State.
• English idealism. T. H. Green, F. H. Bradley and Bernard Bosanquet (The Philosophical Theory of the State, 1899) adapted it to liberal England as a reply to laissez-faire and utilitarianism.

3. Statement of the theory

1. The State is natural, not an artificial contract.
2. The State is an organism with a will and personality of its own; individuals are its members, as cells are of a body.
3. The State represents the real will (rational, social) of its members, as opposed to their actual will (momentary, selfish).
4. True freedom is obedience to the real will, so obedience to the State is freedom, not its loss.
5. Rights exist only in society and are recognised by the State; there are no natural rights against it.
6. The State is an end in itself (Hegel) or the supreme means to moral development (Green).

4. Immanuel Kant (1724–1804)

• Main works: Critique of Pure Reason (1781), Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785), Perpetual Peace (1795).
• The categorical imperative. Act only on that maxim which you can at the same time will to be a universal law; treat humanity always as an end and never merely as a means. Morality is the rational will obeying a law it gives itself (autonomy).
• The State exists to secure the outward conditions of freedom: a legal order in which each person’s freedom can coexist with that of all under a universal law. The State cannot make people moral, because morality is inner, but it can remove obstacles.
• Obligation. Kant held that there is no right of rebellion even against an unjust ruler; one may criticise, but must obey. He favoured a republican constitution and, in Perpetual Peace, a federation of free States to end war.
• Kant is the moral source of idealism; he is closer to liberalism than Hegel.

5. G. W. F. Hegel (1770–1831)

• Main work: Elements of the Philosophy of Right (1820, dated 1821).
• The dialectic. History is the unfolding of the Absolute Idea (Spirit) through thesis, antithesis and synthesis.
• Family, civil society, State. The family (unity based on feeling) is the thesis; civil society (individuals pursuing private interests) is the antithesis; the State, which unites particular interests in a universal one, is the synthesis.
• The State is “the actuality of the ethical Idea”, the march of God in the world (the famous phrase is a paraphrase from his lectures). The individual has reality and freedom only as a member of the State.
• Above morality. The State is not bound by ordinary moral rules in its dealings with other States; war can be a test of national health.
• Hegel’s method passed to Marx, who turned the dialectic from ideas to material conditions.

6. T. H. Green (1836–1882)

• Main works: Lectures on the Principles of Political Obligation (delivered 1879–80, published 1895) and Prolegomena to Ethics (1883).
• “Will, not force, is the basis of the State.” People obey because they recognise that the State serves the common good, not because it compels them.
• Positive freedom. Freedom is the positive power of doing something worth doing; the State must create the conditions for it.
• “Hinder hindrances.” The State cannot make men moral, but it can remove obstacles to the good life: ignorance (compulsory education), drunkenness (licensing), disease (public health) and exploitation (factory laws, land reform).
• Rights are powers recognised by society as necessary for the common good; they are social, not natural.
• Right of resistance. Unlike Hegel and Kant, Green allowed resistance when the State clearly fails to promote the common good, but only as a duty to the community and after careful thought about the consequences.
• Green is called a liberal idealist; his ideas supported the new liberalism and the early welfare State in Britain.

7. Merits

• It rejects the view that the State is a necessary evil and recognises its moral purpose.
• It stresses the social nature of man and the importance of the common good.
• Green’s version gave a philosophical basis for the welfare State.
• It connects rights with duties and makes obligation a matter of reason, not fear.
• It encourages loyalty, public spirit and civic virtue.

8. Limitations

1. State worship. Treating the State as divine and above morality can justify tyranny. L. T. Hobhouse (The Metaphysical Theory of the State, 1918) blamed Hegelian idealism for German militarism.
2. Real will is a dangerous idea. Rulers can claim to know a person’s real will better than he does; this is Berlin’s objection to positive liberty.
3. Abstract and metaphysical. It describes an ideal State, not the actual governments people obey.
4. Neglects associations. Pluralists (Laski, MacIver) argued that churches, unions and other groups have their own claims; the State is one association among several.
5. No room for conscience in Hegel and Kant; Green partly corrects this.
6. Hostile to internationalism. Hegel’s State recognises no higher authority, which conflicts with international law and organisation.

How this is examined

January 2026 (80 marks) Q.3(a): “Critically explain the theory of ‘Idealism’” and Q.3(b): “What are the merits and demerits of ‘Idealism’?”; February 2025 Q.3(a): “Explain the merits of idealism”; August 2024: “T. H. Green’s idealism”; October 2023: notes on Hegel, Green and Kant. For a 6-mark note on one thinker, give works, three ideas, and his view on obedience.