Jewish Philosophical Politics in Germany, 1789-1848

Becoming Citizens of Hegel’s State { 73

consists of the same substance,^101 albeit in a less transparently self-conscious

form, as the universal reason that is more fully actualized in the rational state,

Hegel modeled a critical posture that the Vereinler would adapt to their under-

standing of their relationship—as a new type of Jewish intellectuals—to both

Judaism and the state. Defining the essence of religion in terms of a rational-

ity essentially identical to, albeit more fully realized in, Wissenschaft and the

state lent great political consequence to the Vereinler’s redefinition of Judaism

in terms of its philosophical essence, as well as to their vision of a Wissenschaft

des Judentums in which the rational unity between subject and object, particu-

lar and universal—Judaism and the state—becomes manifest to consciousness.

Rather than aligning the Verein with the restoration Prussian state, moreover,

Hegel’s theorization of the religion-state-Wissenschaft triad offered a philo-

sophical politics that the Vereinler deployed in defiant opposition to Prussian

political realities.

Hegel lectured on the philosophy of right three times prior to publishing the

book version in January 1821 (and four times thereafter). He first lectured on

the topic in Heidelberg in winter 1817 – 18 and then in Berlin, where members of

the Verein attended, in winter 1818 – 19 and winter 1819 – 20.^102 Moser made his

often-cited remark at the inaugural Verein meeting on November 7 , 1819 , that

“the sense in which I here use the word [“state”] requires no explanation,”^103

more than a year before the publication of the Philosophy of Right. Clearly, Moser

and his colleagues owed their enthusiastic familiarity with Hegel’s philosophy

of the state to the Berlin lectures of 1818 – 19 and 1819 – 20 ; the latter course had

begun on October 25 , 1819 , just two weeks before Moser made this remark. In-

deed, the Vereinler shuttled between Hegel’s lecture hall and their own meet-

ings during the eighteen months that they devoted to planning and theorizing

the Verein, and they continued to read, hear, discuss, and appropriate Hegel

throughout the Verein’s existence.

In Hegel’s first Berlin lectures on Staatswissenschaft in 1818 – 19 , Moser and

his colleagues would have heard this formulation—which anticipates § 270 of

the Philosophy of Right^104 —of the relations between religion, state (or ethical

spirit), and philosophy:

Ethical spirit as real, manifest (wirkliches, daseyendes).—That which is re-

ligious (Das Religiöse) positions itself (stellt sich)... as something higher

vis-à-vis ethical life, and philosophy mediates between ([macht] den

Übergang) by showing the identity of both. What is recognized (erkannt) in

philosophy is in religion only felt through imagination (nur vorgestellt ge-

fühlt), it has a subjective, limited form compared to philosophy.—What are