recognition.^116 In the following, I will only highlight some important
passages and discuss Hegel’s relationship to the broader tradition of
religious recognition. For the sake of clarity, I consistently translate
anerkennenas‘recognize’andRechtas‘right’, despite being aware that
‘law’may be a proper translation in some contexts.
Hegel presents love as‘that intellectual recognition which knows
itself’.^117 Like Fichte, Hegel associates recognition with right. Right is
‘the relation of the person in his conduct towards others’; right is thus
‘a recognizing relationship’, the right of a person to be recognized
immediately. For instance, the rights of property require that my
property be recognized by others.^118 Hegel extends this right through
connecting it with love:‘Being recognized is thefirst thing that needs
to emerge; or, the individuals are love, this being recognized without
resistance of wills.’^119
The property rights described by Hegel resemble the Ciceronian
tradition of appropriation oroikeiosissince they are concerned with
something becoming‘my own’.^120 For Hegel, this appropriation is
also a seed of conflict, as those excluded from the property are no
longer equal to those who possess. This means further that all people
are‘outside of themselves’because, owing to the relationships of right
and recognition, they are conscious of how the resources are distrib-
uted among them.^121 As‘knowing wills’, the subjects are people who
are‘being recognized’and who, in situations of inequality, struggle
with one another. In this manner, the event of being recognized
(Anerkanntsein) makes the individual a person.^122 People are char-
acterized through a self-reflective relationship; in terms of our study,
this resembles the event ofse recognoscothat is prominent in Ficino
and Calvin and, more broadly, in the Augustinian religious tradition.
In the next section, dealing with the‘real spirit’(Wirklicher Geist),
Hegel treats concrete and institutional issues like labour, exchange,
and contracts. The state of being recognized is the immediate reality
in which the person and the right subsist.^123 The division of labour
(^116) Honneth 1992, 54–105; Siep 2014, 96–155.
(^117) Jenaer Realphilosophie, 204 (=Jenaer Systementwürfe III,GW8, 213).
(^118) Jenaer Realphilosophie, 206– 7 .GW8, 215–16.
(^119) Jenaer Realphilosophie, 209.GW8, 218.
(^120) Jenaer Realphilosophie, 209–10.GW8, 218–19.
(^121) Jenaer Realphilosophie, 210–11.GW8, 219–20.
(^122) Jenaer Realphilosophie, 212.GW8, 221–2.
(^123) Jenaer Realphilosophie, 213.GW8, 222–3.
138 Recognition and Religion