Reconciliation is the basic concept of Hegel's project. My purpose in this chapter is to provide a preliminary account of what this concept is. The chapter consists of six sections. Section I discusses the ordinary concept of reconciliation and compares the English word ‘reconciliation’ with Versöhnung, the German word it represents. Section II explores the attitude of reconciliation. In section III, the role that conflict plays within reconciliation is explored. Hegel's philosophical concept of reconciliation is the topic of section IV. Section V provides a characterization of alienation, the polar opposite of reconciliation. The relation between reconciliation, revolution, criticism, and reform is briefly discussed in the sixth section.

For reasons to be discussed, Hegel himself never made the concept of reconciliation the topic of extended independent discussion. The account this chapter provides represents an abstraction from his general theory of reconciliation. More specifically, it represents an abstraction from Hegel's conception of the relationship between individuality and social membership, the subject of Chapter 5, and from his account of the structure of the modern social world, the subject of Chapter 6. As such, the account of the concept of reconciliation presented here cannot be completely self-standing. This chapter is meant to provide access to the concept of reconciliation and not to provide the foundation of the theory.

‘Reconciliation’ and ‘Versöhnung’

The word ‘reconciliation’, as it is ordinarily used, is systematically ambiguous as between the process of reconciliation and the state that is its result.