THE UNITY OF IDENTITY AND DIFFERENCE AS THE ...

Civil society also rests upon the distinction between the private and the public
good. The private good consists in the fulfillment of the given desires and needs of
“private persons.” The needs, desires, and aims of various private persons, or
“individuals in their capacity as burghers,” may diverge radically. From the standpoint of
civil society, the purpose of the social realm – or the universal – is not to unite these
various needs, desires, and aims into one complex goal – i.e. the good that is common to
all. Instead, civil society works with a minimal and instrumental conception of the
common good, one that involves (a) protecting the freedom required for individuals to
pursue their diverse private goods, and (b) the procurement of certain basic goods and
services that enable individuals to pursue their private goods. These enabling goods
might include things such as education, healthcare, and basic infrastructure. 322 Thus,
from the standpoint of civil society, the public good serves as a means to the fulfillment
of private needs and desires. In paragraphs 231 – 239 (“The Police”), Hegel argues for
the incoherence of this strong distinction between the private and the public good.
6.2) The Dialectical Development of the Natural and the Social
Hegel’s discussion of civil society undermines the absolute nature of the
dichotomies presented in section 5.1. The standpoint of civil society privileges the first
term in each dichotomy. It assumes that the first term can be clarified without reference
to the second one. Moreover, the standpoint of civil society assumes that both the
meaning and the value of the second term can be explained in terms of the first one. In
322 These enabling goods resemble Rawls’ primary social goods. Rawls argues that, “though
men’s rational plans do have different ends, they nevertheless all require for their execution certain primary
goods, natural and social” (A Theory of Justice, p. 93). Among primary social goods Rawls includes
“rights and liberties, opportunities and powers, income and wealth” (Ibid., p. 92).
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