Prof. Mark Tunick tunick@fau.edu

  1. In an Addition to the Preface (p. 13), taken from lecture notes of one of his students, Hegel distinguishes laws of nature from laws of right. What would be examples of each sort of law, and how do they differ?

  2. What has Hegel got against Herr Fries (pp. 15-16)?

  3. Hegel is critical of utopian theorists (see, for example, p. 20--the paragraph in which he discusses Plato's Republic, and p. 21--the paragraph that includes the greek aphorism). Why does Hegel oppose the utopian theorist's way of doing theory, and how does Hegel think theory should be done instead, and why? (Other passages elsewhere in the Preface will also help you answer this.)

  4. There are two especially famous sentences in the Preface:
   a. "What is rational is actual; and what is actual is rational" (p. 20).
   b. "The owl of Minerva begins its flight only with the onset of dusk" (p. 23).
 What does Hegel mean in each of these passages?

B. Introduction

5. In Paragraphs 5-7 Hegel discusses three 'moments' of the free will. Par. 5 discusses one moment, Par. 6 another. The truly free will combines both moments (Par. 7). Par. 5 concerns the "abstracting" will, which is the will of the suicide, or of "Hindus," or of the French Revolutionaries (Par. 5 Addition). In Par. 6 Hegel criticizes this will. What is wrong with it?

6. Par. 7 Addition: Hegel writes, "freedom lies neither in indeterminacy nor in determinacy, but is both at once...Freedom is to will something determinate, yet to be with oneself in this determinacy...." What does this mean? Think of real examples of what it might be to will something determinate, to will something indeterminate, and to "be with oneself" in a determinacy.

7. In Pars. 15-20 Hegel refers to the "arbitrary will," which he means to distinguish both from the immediate (or natural) will he had discussed in Pars. 11-13 (not assigned), and from the truly free will. Why isn't the arbitrary will truly free?