One of Hegels most controversial and confounding claims is that the real is rational and the rational is real. In this book, one of the worlds leading scholars of Hegel, Jean-Francois Kervegan, offers a thorough analysis and explanation of that claim, along the way delivering a compelling account of modern social, political, and ethical life.

Kervegan begins with Hegels term objective spirit, the public manifestation of our deepest commitments, the binding norms that shape our existence as subjects and agents. He examines objective spirit in three realms: the notion of right, the theory of society, and the state. In conversation with Tocqueville and other theorists of democracy, whether in the Anglophone world or in Europe, Kervegan shows how Hegeloften associated with grand metaphysical ideasactually had a specific conception of civil society and the state. In Hegels view, public institutions represent the fulfillment of deep subjective needsand in that sense, demonstrate that the real is the rational, because what surrounds us is the product of our collective mindedness. This groundbreaking analysis will guide the study of Hegel and nineteenth-century political thought for years to come.