Hegel on the Problem of Relating the State With Civil Society
Hegel points out that
“If the state is confused with civil society, and if its specific end is
laid down as the security and protection of property and personal
freedom, then the interest of the individuals as such becomes the
ultimate end of their association, and it follows that membership of the
state is something optional. But the state’s relation to the individual
is quite different from this. Since the state is mind objectified, it
is only as one of its members that the individual himself has
objectivity, genuine individuality, and an ethical life. Unification
pure and simple is the true content and aim of the individual, and the
individual’s destiny is the living of a universal life. His further
particular satisfaction, activity and mode of conduct have this
substantive and universally valid life as their starting point and their
result.”
This is what Aristotle means when he defined man as a political animal; the polis is to man what the hive is to the bee.
Hegel points out that
This is what Aristotle means when he defined man as a political animal; the polis is to man what the hive is to the bee.