GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

THE IDEALIST THEORY OF THE STATE 595
itself a moral end. 1 It is a concrete expression of the
highest that we know, and in so far as the individual's
spirit is absorbed in its service, he is living according to
the highest that he knows. The part which the State
plays in relation to the good life is, therefore, twofold:
(i) it removes hindrances to the good life: (ii) the purpose
for which it does so, the living of the good life, is a purpose
which can be realized only in and through it. "The State,
as such/' writes Bosanquet, is "limited to the office of
maintaining the external conditions of a good life; but
the conditions cannot be conceived without reference to
the life for which they exist, and it is true, therefore, to
say that the conception of the Nation-State involves at
least an outline of the life to which, as a power, it is
instrumental/' The corollary is that in obeying the State
we are realizing the highest conception of the good life
ofwhich we are capable. Thus in service we enjoy a freedom
which, apart from the State, would be impossible of
attainment. In order to develop this conception, let us
return for a moment to the Hegelian notion of Social
Righteousness. Social Righteousness is, it will be remembered,
a. double-sided conception. Its subjective aspect
is the individual's moral will; its objective, the laws
and institutions of society. Freedom, according to Kant,
consisted in obedience to the moral will; but the moral
will, Hegel had asserted, is bare and meaningless apart
from the individual's relations to his fellows in and through
which atone it finds expression. Now the individual's
relation to his fellows, his attitude to the community of
which he is a member, the conventions which regulate
these relations and this attitude, and the public opinion
which approves and disapproves his conduct and his
person all these constitute the stuffof Social Righteousness.
True freedom, according to Hegel, consists in living
in accordance with the dictates of Social Righteousness.
But Social is a
Righteousness conception which entails
the State, the laws and institutions of the State being in
1 Sec Section II (5) pp. 59* 593 **>vc.