Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770 1831) Hegels systematic concept of totality was conceived as a means to overcome the

e duality in Kants philosophy. Teleos meaning purpose or goal.

History exhibits progressive developments of an evolutionary nature. Absolute Absolute Spirit Absolute Idea

Hegelian spirit is constantly moving in time towards a goal. It is on a trajectory that is teleological in nature. The goal of the spirit is to be fully conscious of itself and realize its essence freedom.

Path of the spirit is dialectical. Hegelian triad of Thesis, Anti-thesis and Synthesis. Johann Gottlieb Fichte.

Pic

The spirit comes to realize itself only through a process of self reflection Hegels philosophy of history gives us a model of how consciousness can transform itself and the other world,

According to Paul Ricoeur Marx, Nietzsche and Freud are the masters of suspicion and they together constitute a hermeneutics of suspicion. Firstly each of them takes up the problem of Descartess doubt and question Descartess assumption that certain knowledge of the self and the world is possible Secondly, they expose the illusions of consciousness and demote its significance Thirdly all three clear the way for a new reign of truth and all three emphasise on the vital part played by interpretation in truth claims Fourthly, although all three expose the illusions of consciousness, they do not stop merely at criticism, they also come up with their own definition and concept of consciousness

Freud: his theory of the unconscious dimensions of the self that revealed that there were aspects of the individuals consciousness that was not accessible to though Marx: who claimed that it is not the consciousness of men that determine their being, but their social being that determines their consciousness. Nietzsche: his critique of the traditional western metaphysics from its Greek and Jewish origins through its Christian developments into its modern, secularised and scientific form The combined effect is that the notion of the integrity and autonomy of the human individual/self/consciousness/ is disturbed.