Hegel and Social Justice: Rethinking Universal Freedom

Emmanuel Nakamura explores how Hegel’s social philosophy, and in particular his concept of freedom, offers a logical model for reframing urgent social questions posed by migration, inequalities, global interdependence, and populism. Bringing Hegel into dialogue with critical theory and the recent work of Nancy Fraser, Axel Honneth, and Rahel Jaeggi, Nakamura asserts that Hegel offers a superior model to his modern counterparts for addressing the social questions of our time.In substantiating his claim, he does not shy away from contradictions in Hegel’s system, such as that between the concept of the ‘person of rights’ and the nation-state as bearer of principles of world history.Instead he argues that these inconsistencies in Hegel’s social philosophy closely mirror the contemporary challenges of social justice.By thus engaging with these same contradictions, Nakamura proposes a new framework for understanding today’s pressing issues. Rather than offering a utopian model, this book de