Hegel, Imperialism, and Universal History

A growing body of scholarship has addressed Hegel's analysis of the social question and of European expansionism. An equally significant literature has focused on his philosophy of history, discussing its Eurocentrism or even his racist distortions. Study of the link between Hegel's political economy and his philosophy of history reveals the centrality of labor and of historical evolution in his work. This permitted Hegel to overcome, in part, the naturalizing approach of the classical economists and to identify some contradictions of the system. As he also ended up by naturalizing it, however, Hegel promoted European expansionism on the basis of a Eurocentric vision that clashes with the universalist perspective of the Philosophy of Right.