Reconciliation is among four functions Rawls enumerates that political philosophy can play as a part of public political culture, with Hegel’s Philosophy of Right as its main historical exemplar (LHPP 10; JF 3). Rawls notes that the German word for reconciliation, Versöhnung, has a specialized meaning that Hegel distinguishes from a colloquial synonym like Ergebenheit (resignation) (LHMP 331). A political project centered around the latter might aim to show that, given the human condition or our historical predicament, our political institutions are as good as can be expected, even though they may seem seriously deficient. By contrast, a reconciliatory project attempts to show that although our social world may seem accidental or arbitrary, its institutions actually reflect the work of reason. By this, Hegel means that the institutional pillars of modern society – family, civil society, the constitutional state – are necessary for freedom (LHMP 336–340).