Poverty from a Hegelian perspective

This paper focuses on the material dimension of poverty of the Hegelian perspective aiming to complement the dispositional view proposed to date. In this paper, Hegel's accounts on the possible antecedents and outcomes of poverty will be reviewed, with the possible antecedents including personal excess; individual differences in terms of intelligence, strengths and access to capital, and the successful operations of the economic system in civil society. The outcomes, on the other hand, are degradation of morality, emergence of rabble, and damage on civil society. The solutions Hegel offered for the alleviation of poverty, namely, charity, tax and income redistribution, creation of jobs, and the intervention by the Corporation will be evaluated. While most Hegelian commentators agreed that the last solution is the most feasible one, this paper proposes empowering individuals through three means for the alleviation of poverty as an extension of Hegel's recommendations. The first means is enhancing recognition for the poor by the civil society, as poverty is a state of mind, or collectively a sub-culture that results in alienation of the poor by the civil society at large. Another means is Bildung in terms of understanding of capitalist society as well as the knowledge and skills for survival in the employment market. The final means is the enhancement of morality through taking actions. It is concluded that these three means can unleash the untapped potentials of ethical life (Sittlichkeit) in the alleviation of poverty in civil society. These means can salvage the ethical life (Sittlichkeit), which is a state in which the good is identical with the subjective will.