Note of the Editor.
These lectures, which are partly critical and partly expository,
treat of the moral grounds upon which the state is based and upon
which obedience to the law of the state is justified. They were
delivered in 1879-80, following upon the course from which the
discussion of Kant's moral theory in this volume is taken. The two
courses are directly connected, civil institutions being throughout
regarded as the external expression of the moral progress of mankind,
and as supplying the material through which the idea of perfection
must be realised.
As is implied in section 5, the inquiry into the nature of political
obligation forms part of a wider inquiry into the concrete forms
of morality in general, 'the detail of goodness.' The lecturer
had intended to complete the course by a consideration of 'social
virtues' and 'moral sentiments'; but this intention was not carried
out. (See section 251.)