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How did Hegel argue that human nature is shaped by society?

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Fragment of a Roman fresco showing Socrates seated and draped in a white robe, with Greek text above, on a red background with visible cracks. — Philosophical anthropology Socrates, Roman fresco, 1st century bce; in the Ephesus Museum, Selçuk, Turkey.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel argued that human nature is not fixed but is fundamentally shaped by the society in which an individual lives. In his work The Philosophy of Right, Hegel proposed that individuals find their identity through their participation in an "organic community," such as the family, civil society, and the state.123

Hegel believed that a community fosters specific desires and duties in its members, effectively imbuing them with a sense of belonging where their personal identity is inseparable from the whole. This relationship is reciprocal: just as the individual identifies with the community, the community supports the interests of its members. By occupying a specific "station" within this social structure—such as being a parent, citizen, or professional—an individual’s moral duties are defined and given concrete content.12

Ultimately, Hegel viewed this as a way to overcome the modern division between individual conscience and communal life, aiming for a synthesis where citizens consciously identify with institutions that they recognize as rationally justified.12