The Hegelian compromise: Globalization, justice and the modern state
[Thesis]
;supervisor Mitchell, Joshua
Georgetown University: United States -- District of Columbia
: 2007
358 pages
Ph.D.
, Georgetown University: United States -- District of Columbia
Through an examination of the work of G. W. F. Hegel, Alexis de Tocqueville and Alexandre Kojغve this dissertation seeks to explore the possibility of justice represented by the modern State within the constraints of the epistemological problems presented by the materialist ontology of modern science and the antinomy between the authority of the individual subject and the authority of tradition, within the setting of global politics and global democracy. I argue that Tocqueville's account of democratic despotism and equality in servitude, and Kojغve's vision of the end of history, are both characterizations of the same historical movement that we are now experiencing under the name of globalization and, the coming, global democracy. I argue that while Hegel sets the philosophical boundaries for the problem, and Tocqueville addresses the political necessity of practical experience and prudential knowledge, their solutions are historically insufficient and incomplete. I suggest that Kojغve's vision of a Latin Empire combines the essential political elements identified by Tocqueville while at the same time satisfying Hegel's philosophical requirements to the problems of modernity. I conclude that Kojغve's Outline of a Phenomenology of Right provides the outline of the constitution appropriate to the Modern State in a Global World.