Hegel and Marx on the Historical Necessity of the Terror

Abstract Hegel is shown to explain the historical necessity of the phase of the French Revolution known as the Terror in terms of conceptual necessity. This conceptual necessity concerns the self-conception and understanding of how the world ought to be characteristic of agents who are committed to the idea of ‘absolute’ freedom. Practical necessity here plays a key role, in that it is the mediating factor between this conceptual necessity and historical necessity. It also enables Hegel to avoid introducing a standpoint that is external to the one of the agents caught up in the historical process that is being explained. Marx explains the Terror in similar terms, and his explanation of it is shown to be related to his critique of the modern state and his critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right.