Hegel and Colonialism

This Element offers the first comprehensive study of Hegel’s views on European colonialism. In surprisingly detailed discussions scattered throughout much of his mature oeuvre, Hegel offers assessments that legitimise colonialism in the Americas, the enslavement of Africans, and British rule in India. The Element reconstructs these discussions as being held together by a systematic account of colonialism as racial domination, underpinned by central elements of his philosophy and situated within long-overlooked contexts, including Hegel’s engagement with British abolitionism and Scottish four-stages theories of social development. Challenging prevailing approaches in scholarship, James and Knappik show that Hegel’s accounts of issues like freedom, personhood and the dialectic of lordship and bondage are deeply entangled with his disturbing views on colonialism, slavery, and race. Lastly, they address Hegel’s ambivalent legacy, examining how British Idealists and others adopted his pro-colonial ideas, while thinkers like C. L. R. James and Angela Davis transformed them for anti-colonial purposes. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.