Abstract

The renovated interest for Hegel’s Philosophy of Right has strangely left out his considerations on constitution, often considered as a clear indication of the archaic nature of the philosopher’s thinking on political institutions. Nevertheless, this approach, irrespective of the movement of thought paradigmatically expressed by the famous equation of rational and actual, reduces Hegel’s operation to a mere constitutional proposal. This contribution attempts to read the paragraphs of the Elements of Philosophy of Right dedicated to the constitution in continuity with the Hegelian philosophical project considered as a whole. The attempt to understand the rational core of the historical raising of the modern state corresponds to an immanent critique of the fundamental concepts of modern political science, which Hegel intends to overcome because of its abstract and intellectualistic character