Hegel and Social Justice : Rethinking Universal Freedom

Emmanuel Nakamura explores how Hegel’s social philosophy, in particular his concept of freedom, offers a logical model for reframing urgent social questions posed by migration, inequalities, global interdependence, and populism.

Bringing Hegel into dialogue with critical theory and the recent work of Nancy Fraser, Axel Honneth, and Rahel Jaeggi, Nakamura asserts that Hegel offers a superior model to his modern counterparts for addressing the social questions of our time. Uniquely employing Hegel’s dialectical method, the book exposes hidden populist currents in contemporary society and reclaims Hegel’s urgent relevance not so much as a philosopher of historical attainment, but of broken progress. Building off recent work by thinkers such as Terry Pinkard, Nakamura’s study reveals a new depth in the Hegelian system for our time of crisis.

In substantiating his claim, he does not shy away from contradictions in Hegel’s system, such as that between the concept of the ‘person of rights’ and the nation-state as bearer of principles of world history. Instead he argues that these inconsistencies in Hegel’s social philosophy closely mirror the contemporary challenges of social justice. By engaging with these same contradictions, Nakamura proposes a new framework for understanding today’s pressing issues.

Rather than offering a utopian model, this book develops Hegel’s concept of the ‘person of rights’ to rethink how universal freedom can be meaningfully articulated beyond the limits of territorial citizenship. Following Hegel, it argues that justice must be understood historically, as ‘progress in the consciousness of freedom’, while warning against current regressions that produce new forms of unfreedom.

Innovatively combining a systematic reconstruction of Hegel’s philosophy with contemporary social diagnosis, Hegel and Social Justice provides scholars of Hegel, social philosophy, and critical theory with a rigorous and original reflection on freedom and the future of rights in an increasingly fractured world.