POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY my happiness without being forms of selWshness Conversely, social institutions are not a restraint on my freedom: they expand my freedom by giving a wider scope to my possibilities of action This is true of the family, and it is true also of what Hegel calls ‘civil society’—voluntary organizations such as clubs and businesses It is true above all of the state, which provides the widest scope for freedom of action, while at the same time furthering the purposes of the world-spirit (Weltgeist) Ideally, a state should be so organized that the private interests of the citizens coincide with the common interests of the state In respect of history, states and peoples themselves count among the individuals who are, unconsciously, the instruments by which the world-spirit achieves its object There are also some unique Wgures, great men like Caesar or Napoleon, who have a special role in expressing the will of the world-spirit, and who see the aspects of history which are ripe for development in their time Such people, however, are the exception, and the normal development of the world-spirit is through the spirit of particular peoples or nations, the Volksgeist That spirit shows itself in the culture, religion, and philosophy of a people, as well as in its social institutions Nations are not necessarily identical with states—indeed, when Hegel wrote, the German nation had not yet turned itself into a German state—but only in a state does a nation become self-conscious of itself The creation of the state is the high object for which the world-spirit uses individuals and peoples as its instruments A state for Hegel is not just a coercive instrument for keeping the peace or for protecting property: it is a platform for new and higher purposes which extend the liberty of individuals by giving a new dimension to their lives The state, as the incarnation of freedom, exists for its own sake All the worth, all the spiritual reality which the individual citizen possesses, he possesses only through the state For only by participating in social and political life is he fully conscious of his own rationality, and of himself as a manifestation, through the folk-spirit, of the world-spirit The state, Hegel says, is the divine Idea as it exists on earth The divine Idea, however, is not yet fully realized The German spirit, Hegel believed, was the spirit of a new world in which absolute truth would be realized in unlimited freedom But even the kingdom of Prussia was not the last word of the world-spirit Given Hegel’s constant preference for wholes over their parts, one might expect that in his scheme of things nation-states would eventually give way to a world-state But Hegel 301