Smith (1776) and Hegel (circa 1821)

In this section we compare two European derived theories of the modern world system.  In Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, (1776), we find a rationale for British ascendance as the leading empire claiming a place for itself in the world system.  In Hegel's Philosophy of History, we read extracts from his series of lectures on world history written and delivered between 1822 and 1831, and first published in 1840.

Adam Smith (1723–1790)  major work on philosophy was his  Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759).  In his theory, morals are a product of bilateral relations.  One chooses to be moral out of an obligation of personal experience or relations with another person. This reciprocity forges a relation for moral sentiments and responsibility.  Taken together with The Wealth of Nations and with other writers of the 17th and 18th centuries we can recongize how bilateral relations and exchanges are the basis for personal and commercial dealings.  Thus it is can also be seen how bilateral relations form the basis of state to state negotiations and relations.  For a chart on our trade deficit with China (a contemporary problem Smith would have been interested) 

Key questions on Adam Smith:

1. Does Smith's division of labor rely upon a theory of natural divisions of human nature?  
2. Do you agree or disagree with Smith's acceptance of the causes of a division of labor, and why or why not?
3. Smith proclaims that the function of political economy is provide a plentiful revenue or subsitence for the people and to enrich both the people and the sovereign (p. 462).  How then does Smith explain the failure of states to achieve this mutual benefit?  

Georg W.F. Hegel (1770-1831) was a product of the German university system and the influence of secular thought on intellectuals.  His career choice of pursuing a career in philosophy in the universities rather than that of a Protestant minister is indicative of the choice available in German society to forming and creating different types of intellectuals.  His lectures on history are a foundation for historical materialism that will influcence Karl Marx, while his Philosophy of Right, a series of lectures beginning in 1822 form a core of his political philosophy.  Hegel's emphasis on Spirit as Freedom is in juxtaposition to its opposite - the material forces of gravity and centralizing tendency.  Centralization as in the rise of institutions may be thought of leading to unity and a unified ideology.  Hegel introduces the idealism of Spirit as a striving for freedom. In this class we shall read extracts from his Lectures on the Philosophy of History, in which he describes and argues for a clear distinction between Western and Orientalist societies.  One may recognize here the basic assumptions that are still prevalent about a modern and democratic West but a traditional and despotic East.  In the other words, the West contains the Spirit fo freedom, but the Orientals (by which he means broadly the non-Westerners) lack an ideology or spirit of freedom and thus are living and acting within the centralizing tendency of despotism.  We shall critique these essays in class.

Key questions on Hegel:

1. Do you find Hegel's description of Orientalist societies to be oversimplified and to consist of generalizations or even racist notions of a despotic East?
2. Is Hegel's model of Western civilization or European development defensible?  
3. Is Hegel's distinction between civil society and state useful for our consideration of the difference between public space and power and that of the state or government? 
4. What are the political ramifications of this distinction?  
5. To what extent does the state rely upon cooperation with or hegemony an influence over civil society to maintain power?