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47 2 Patriotism and the Nature of the State With this survey of the development of agency from “Anthropology” to civil society as background, I turn to Hegel’s discussion of specifically political components of practical identity as found in his discussion of the state. Hegel begins his theory of the state by considering what the citizen’s disposition toward the state should be. This should not surprise us, given that Hegel explicitly says that part of the limitation of civil society was the individual’s resentment of the state: in civil society, the individual saw the state’s laws as external and imposed. This attitude interferes with the individual’s ability to be at home with his own actions, leaving him alienated from and resentful of even the things that promote his freedom. Hegel’s description of the citizen’s disposition aims first of all, then, to identify what must be true both of the state and of the individual’s perception of the state in order to allow the citizen to be at home in his actions. Because Hegel believes that subjectivity is the hallmark of modern agency, his description of the ideal political disposition combines insistence that the state cultivate its citizens’ individuality with the requirement that individuals modify their self-interest for the good of the state. When the citizen and the state mutually recognize each other, the citizen can see the laws of the state as his own and so be at home in them. The citizen’s disposition is, then, a crucial component of agency. To describe the attitude the citizen will ideally have, Hegel uses the word “patriotism,” but in a way that has only limited resemblance to our contemporary use of the word.1 Hegel describes patriotism as “trust” and as a “disposition”; he denies that it has to do with extraordinary sacrifice and claims that it contributes to an agent’s freedom. In most of his comments on patriotism, Hegel does not mention any particular country, much less loyalty to or pride in one’s country. In order to clarify what Hegel means by “patriotism,” I will sketch below a brief history of the term during Hegel’s lifetime. Hegel, I will argue, in fact uses the word “patriotism” in a way that combines several themes from patriotism’s history . This history also suggests his awareness of the way the word’s use was changing and his desire to differentiate true patriotism from its inferior forms.2 48 H E G E L O N P O L I T I C A L I D E N T I T Y Clarifying Hegel’s use of the word “patriotism” is the first aim of this chapter. The second is to establish the link between patriotism, or the citizen’s ideal attitude toward the state, and the nature of the state itself. The state Hegel describes in the Philosophy of Right is a theoretical rational state; he is not describing the Prussian state as it existed during his lifetime.3 Patriotism in Hegel’s definition, then, is not an attitude the citizen should have toward just any state but rather toward a state committed to promoting the freedom Hegel describes. Patriotism as Hegel conceptualizes it is also, I will argue, meant to be a response to the state understood as political institutions, not as a national, cultural entity. Hegel reserves discussion of the status of national loyalties for the segments of his philosophy that consider world history and aesthetics. Articulating what Hegel means by a rational state is the final aim of this chapter. Hegel specifies the nature of this state both internally and externally: internally as regards the division of power, representation, and the sovereign; externally as regards international relations and the nature of war. Within both spheres, Hegel attempts to articulate a vision of ethical life in which the individual can be concretely free—in which he can shape his desires and recognize others within rational institutions he can also endorse. Hegel’s choice of particular representative bodies, his preference for a sovereign, his evaluation of war, and his description of the state in the international arena all serve to articulate a political situation in which the citizen’s concrete freedom is made possible. The History of Patriotism In order to make this argument, a brief survey of the history of patriotism during Hegel’s time is in order. German patriotism, by the time Hegel began lecturing on Rechtsphilosophie...

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