Toward a Theory of Organic Relations

This book thematises Hegel’s earliest writings to explore the role an organic theory plays in his understanding of politics, society, ethics, culture and human nature. The book develops a relational account of the organic where the relations constitutive of the socio-political realm are understood as recognitive ones. Ultimately Hegel presents a non holistic relational social theory mediating the tensions between holism and individualism. This book contributes to the small body of English language writings devoted to Hegel’s Early Theological Writings. It does so by showing that many of the features important to Hegel’s later work are present in his earliest thinking in a more radical form. Most importantly it demonstrates that both a relational theory of Geist and an ethics of recognition are present in his thinking as early as 1793 and emerged through his thinking about the relationship between religion and society.