Section 175
Original German
175 Die Kinder sind an sich Freye, und das Leben ist das unmittelbare Daseyn nur dieser Freyheit, sie gehören daher weder Anderen, noch den Eltern als Sachen an. Ihre Erziehung hat die in Rücksicht auf das Familienverhältniß positive Bestimmung, daß die Sittlichkeit in ihnen zur unmittelbaren, noch Gegensatzlosen Empfindung gebracht, und das Gemüth darin als dem Grunde des sittlichen Lebens, in Liebe, Zutrauen und Gehorsam sein erstes Leben gelebt habe, — dann aber die in Rücksicht auf dasselbe Verhältniß negative Bestimmung, die Kinder aus der natürlichen Unmittelbarkeit, in der sie sich ursprünglich befinden, zur Selbstständigkeit und freyen Persönlichkeit und damit zur Fähigkeit, aus der natürlichen Einheit der Familie zu treten, zu erheben.
Das Sklavenverhältniß der römischen Kinder ist eine der diese Gesetzgebung befleckendsten Institutionen, und diese Kränkung der Sittlichkeit in ihrem innersten und zartesten Leben ist eins der wichtigsten Momente, den weltgeschichtlichen Charakter der Römer und ihre Richtung auf den Rechts-Formalismus zu verstehen. — Die Nothwendigkeit, erzogen zu werden, ist in den Kindern als das eigene Gefühl, in sich, wie sie sind, unbefriedigt zu seyn, — als der Trieb, der Welt der Erwachsenen, die sie als ein höheres ahnden, anzugehören, der Wunsch groß zu werden. Die spielende Pädagogik nimmt das Kindische schon selbst als etwas, das an sich gelte, gibt es den Kindern so und setzt ihnen das Ernsthafte und sich selbst in kindische von den Kindern selbst gering geachtete Form herab. Indem sie so dieselben in der Unfertigkeit, in der sie sich fühlen, vielmehr als fertig vorzustellen und darin befriedigt zu machen bestrebt ist, — stört und verunreinigt sie deren wahres eigenes besseres Bedürfniß, und bewirkt theils die Interesselosigkeit und Stumpfheit für die substantiellen Verhältnisse der geistigen Welt, theils die Verachtung der Menschen, da sich ihnen als Kindern dieselbe selbst kindisch und verächtlich vorgestellt haben, und dann die sich an der eigenen Vortrefflichkeit weidende Eitelkeit und Eigendünkel.
Musean translation
Machine-assisted Musean translation made directly from Hegel's German in the Berlin Nicolai first edition, dated 1821. Complete preface, introduction and sections 1–360, including the author's remarks and notes; no later Gans additions.
175 The children are in themselves free, and life is the immediate existence only of this freedom; they therefore belong neither to others nor to the parents as things. Their education has, with regard to the family relation, the positive determination that ethical life be brought in them to immediate feeling, still without opposition, and that the heart may have lived its first life in this, as the ground of ethical life, in love, trust and obedience—and then the negative determination, with regard to the same relation, of raising the children out of the natural immediacy in which they originally find themselves to self-sufficiency and free personality, and thereby to the capacity to leave the natural unity of the family.
The slave relation of Roman children is one of the institutions that most stain that legislation, and this injury to ethical life in its innermost and tenderest life is one of the most important moments for understanding the world-historical character of the Romans and their bent toward legal formalism.—The necessity of being educated is present in the children as their own feeling of being dissatisfied with themselves as they are—as the drive to belong to the world of the grown-ups, which they sense to be a higher one, the wish to become big. The playful pedagogy takes what is childish as already valid in itself, gives it to the children as such, and lowers the serious, and itself, to a childish form despised by the children themselves. In that it strives to present them as finished in the unfinishedness in which they feel themselves to be, and to make them content in it, it disturbs and defiles their true, own, better need, and produces partly indifference and dullness toward the substantial relations of the spiritual world, partly contempt for human beings, since the world presented itself to them as children as itself childish and contemptible, and then vanity and conceit, feeding on their own excellence.
Plain English translation
Independent machine-assisted Plain English translation made directly from the German first-edition source, not from the Musean edition or an existing English translation. Complete preface, introduction and sections 1–360 with the author's remarks and notes.
175 Children are free in themselves, and life is the immediate existence of this freedom alone. So they belong neither to others nor to their parents as things. Their education has, in regard to the family relationship, a positive purpose: ethical life is to be brought into them as an immediate feeling that has no opposition in it yet, and the heart is to have lived its first life in this, as the ground of ethical life, in love, trust and obedience. In regard to the same relationship it also has a negative purpose: to raise the children out of the natural immediacy in which they originally find themselves, to independence and free personality, and so to the ability to leave the natural unity of the family.
The slave relationship of Roman children is one of the institutions that most stains Roman legislation. This injury to ethical life in its innermost and most tender part is one of the most important points for understanding the Romans' character in world history and their bent toward legal formalism. — The need to be educated lies in the children themselves, as their own feeling of being unsatisfied with themselves as they are. It is the drive to belong to the world of grown-ups, which they sense to be higher, the wish to grow up. A playful pedagogy takes childishness itself as something valid in itself. It gives it to children as such, and lowers what is serious, and itself, into a childish form that the children themselves think little of. It tries to present children as finished in their unfinished state, which they feel, and to make them content with that. In doing so it disturbs and spoils their own true and better need. It produces partly indifference and dullness toward the substantial relationships of the spiritual world, and partly contempt for people, because those people have presented themselves to them, as children, in a childish and contemptible way. It then also produces vanity and conceit, which feed on their own excellence.
About this section
Section 175 is part of Elements of the Philosophy of Right by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. This page sets the German original beside 2 direct-source translations, so any line can be checked against the source. It is section 177 of 362 in the work, which is kept in the European tradition.
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