At the present day we see the world full of the principle of freedom, and we see that principle brought into special relation with the constitution of the State. These principles are correct, but when infected with formalism they are assumptions or presuppositions, since rational knowledge or cognition has not penetrated to the ultimate ground. It is there alone that reconciliation with what is absolutely Substantial is to be found.
The other aspect of the matter which falls to be considered in connection with the separation just spoken of is this—that if the principles of actual freedom are made the basis, and these develop into a system of Right, then, given positive laws consequently come into existence and these acquire the general form of judicial laws in relation to individuals. The upholding of the existing legislation is handed over to the courts of justice; whoever transgresses the law is brought up for trial, and the existence of the community as a whole is made to rest on laws in this legal form. Over against this, however, stands that subjective conviction, that inner life which is the very home of religion. In this way two sides, both of which pertain to the actual world, are mutually opposed, namely, positive legislation, and the subjective disposition or feeling in reference to this legislation.
As regards the constitution of the State, there are two systems here—the modern system in which the essential characteristics of freedom and its whole structure are upheld in a formal manner to the disregard of subjective conviction. The other system is that of subjective conviction—which represents, speaking generally, the Greek principle, and which we find developed in a special way in the Republic of Plato. Here simply a few orders constitute the foundation, while the State as a whole is based upon education, upon culture, which is to advance to science and philosophy. Philosophy is to be the ruling power, and by means of it man is to be led to morality: all orders are to be partakers of the σωφροσύνη.
