The foundations of this edition were laid at the University of Bochum. The readiness with which Professor Poggeler and his staff put the full resources of the Hegel Archive at my disposal, and went out of their way in helping me to survey the field and get t9 grips with the editing of the manuscript material, has put me very greatly in their debt. I could never have cleared the ground so effectively anywhere else, and I should like to express my very deep grati tude for all the help and encouragement they have given me. It has been completed in the Netherlands, - in a University which is justly proud of both the liberal and humanistic traditions of its country and its close links with the enterprise and accomplishments of a great com mercial city, and in a faculty engaged primarily in establishing itself as a centre of inter-disciplinary research. I have found these surroundings thoroughly congenial, and can only hope that the finished work will prove worthy of its setting.

Hegel’s Philosophy of Right was his last systematic work and the most complete statement of his mature views on ethical and political philosophy. The text explores the relationships between three distinct conceptions of human freedom: persons as possessing contract rights, subjects as reflective moral agents, and individuals as members of an ethical community. It strongly influenced the early Marx and debates over liberalism and communitarianism that arose in the latter half of the twentieth century. In celebration of the 200th anniversary of the publication of the Philosophy of Right, the 18 essays in this volume by contemporary scholars examine the nature and impact of Hegel's text. They examine a diverse array of topics, ranging from Hegel's account of rights, religious freedom, gender, the state, history, and naturalism to some hitherto relatively overlooked topics such as Hegel and Luther, art and nationality, and Hegel and the market. Each contribution also pays homage to the work of Terry Pinkard, who, as a foremost interpreter and scholar of Hegel’s thought, revived and reinvented the contemporary field of Hegel studies. Hegel's Philosophy of Right: Critical Perspectives on Freedom and History will be valuable reading for scholars of Hegel, nineteenth-century German philosophy, moral and political philosophy, and the history of political thought.

Hegel is presented as a critical philosopher whose disagreements with Kant only enhance the idealist arguments against empiricism, realism and naturalism in this original interpretation.