Hegel and Plato on how to become good.

In the Preface to the Philosophy of Right, Hegel draws a favourable comparison between his project and Plato's Republic, while making a critical comment about an example taken from Plato's Laws. In this paper we investigate what Hegel's assessment of Plato's two texts in political philosophy illuminates about his conception of ethical education and the extent to which his own method allows a philosopher to contribute to the process of making people good. We show that although Hegel agrees with Plato that one becomes good by becoming "a citizen in a state with good laws" (PR §153), he believes that philosophy must remain faithful to its limited role in determining what these are going to be. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]