Elements of the Philosophy of Right

Answers

• Q36STATE

  Should public officials carry out rules without exercising personal moral judgment?

  Yes. the official subordinates personal judgment to the universal. Civil servants are educated to a dispassionate, upright demeanor in which personal passions and ties give way to universal interests.

  296. Whether or no integrity of conduct, gentleness, and freedom from passion pass into social custom depends upon the nature of the direct ethical life and thought. These phases of character maintain the spiritual balance over against the merely mental acquisition of the so-called sciences, dealing with the objects of these spheres of government, against also the necessary practice of business, and the actual labour of mechanical and other trades. The greatness of the state is also a controlling element, by virtue of which the importance of family relations and other private ties is diminished, and revenge, hate, and the like passions become inoperative and powerless. In concern for the great interests of a large state, these subjective elements sink out of sight, and there is produced an habitual regard for universal interests and affairs.

  OCR corrected

  §§294-296 · Marxists Internet Archive 'The State' section and UT Austin excerpt PDF quoting §294 and §296.