Hegel
Because
History and the Geist
- Geist manifests not only in knowledge but
history’s progression
- History is more than a sequence but
advancement of society leading to the
conscious freedom
- Tuth is the whole freedom of the collective
consciousness
- “Slaughter Bench” – necessary in order for
people to achieve freedom, a current act
of striving to be free
o since we’re part of the unfolding
geist, we struggle at different
levels at a certain level of
rationality
- “Reasons and Desire” – desire/passion is
what drives people to progression,
everything at benefit is through passion
- “Cunning of Reason” – the absolute uses
human passion as a means to its end which
is human reason
o (1) Great Nation – states which
appear successively in history
o (2) through great historical
individuals who bring about
profound changes in history
- the geist uses forms of rebellion, hatred
for authority to progress history
- the nation state is not a mere nation but a
true individuality, goes in line with the
nation state (we are who we are by the
nation state)
- authenticity is not from the self but your
identification of the whole
Hegel’s Philosophy of History
- “Spirit of the People” / “Volksgeist” –
unifies the diversities
o combines all elements of cultures
to a unity (makes culture a culture)
o the nation state as a “true
individual”
o the spirit of the people varies
among culture, since it what strings
all elements in a given culture
- Why is the Filipino dependent?
the government is fucked up
- Descartes’ decisions were based on the
context during his time (thus what your
ideas, decisions and attitude is usually
developed by the culture)
- Even if you live in the nation state, but you
cant just blindly conform but affirm that
you are conforming
- If you revolt against the state, you lose
your sense of self—you don’t have to
conform into it
- When a person is trying to be anarchic, its
because he’s conforming to an
individualistic group (he became anarchic
because some other group was being
anarchic)
- SOOOO NO HEGEL, NO EXISTEN
- Limiting one’s freedom to achieve a
greater form of freedom
- One can only be a self in reference to
society
- Formal Freedom (anarchistic) – an
abomination, will must be in accordance
to the general will
o Radical thinkers transcend and
accept norms (only apart of the
unfolding of the geist)
o The subjective will must be in
accordance to the universal will (in
reference to freedom)
o FREEDOM <-> KNOWLEDGE
- “World Historical Individuals”
o uses finite modification in
historical individuals (Hitler,
Copernicus, Bin Laden, Bonaparte)
– they are change agents, no
matter how intellectual, they are
necessary evils in the advancement
of history (no Hitler, no formal
concept of tyranny and
dictatorship)
Hegel’s Dialectical Triad of Human History
I. Oriental World (Thesis) – seen in
China, Prussia and India
 Oriental freedom is when
only the Oriental despot
(usually the ruler of the
 lower classes, aka the II. Anti-thesis – Philosophy of nature
Emperor or whatnot) is (objectivity) (Geist for itself)
free, everyone else is o Nature is the “visible spirit” or
considered equal visible nature
II. Greco-Roman World (Anti-thesis) – o “the real is rational, and the
some people are free (citizens)— rational is real”
considering the master-slave (which is  what is found in the mind
seen in the Japanese people and has connections with the
feudalism) world
III. Christian-Germanic (Synthesis) –  only the intelligible can
everyone can have freedom, all are exist, the irrational cannot
free exist
 There are two things to o “Infinite space and time”
consider under this o “Chemism, mechanism and
world, (1) is the monarch, Teleology” - scientific laws,
which is the head of state, physical world is rational
and (2) is the constitution o “Universal ideas” – universality is
that would dictate that found in the configuration of
everyone has free will— nature
the monarch merely III. Synthesis (Philosophy of the spirit)
serves as the rulers that (Geist “in” and “for itself”)
institute the constitution,  “ethical substance of
granting that everyone be society”
free i. Three Stages of Political life
1. Family (thesis) –
- In the oriental world, everyone is love and
subjugated by the monarch, but there is a compassion,
constitution that gives everyone freedom subjugated to the
- They use Christianity as a tool to establish ruling principles
freedom in all of humanity (mom or dad)
- Even if they are working, there is internal 2. Civil society (anti-
enlightenment of freedom (pinnacle in thesis), they learn
societal freedom) to think for
- One must see reality holistically, and themselves, is the
religion and faith are just parts or stepping embodiment of the
stones in the unfolding of the geist particulars, self-
- Particulars must always adhere to satisfaction, has a
universals way of affecting
- Contradictions are necessary in achieving society, our ways of
the consciousness of freedom life are connected
to other things
Hegel’s Triadic expression of the “Geist” (inequality)
I. Thesis – Doctrine of the “Logos” 3. The State –
(subjectivity) (Geist Itself) unification of
o “Being” – Geist itself (thesis) particulars and
o “Not Being” (anti-thesis) universals
o “Becoming” – is both “is” and “is (Athenian
not” when it changes, or becomes governments, all
(synthesis) people have rights
 in participating in
state laws)
TWO KINDS OF FREEDOM
1. Formal Freedom – about extreme,
individual freedom, disconnected from
society
a. Leads to alienation/estrangement
(failure of the will of the individual
to identify with the larger will of
society)
b. Individualism, Hegel’s view is a
solvent
2. Substantial Freedom – consists with the
alignment of individual will with the
general will, or “political absolutism”
a. Your will is aligned with the
universal, and you become a real
self
LUDWIG FEUERBACH (1804-1872)
- “the essence of Christianity”
- influenced Marx
- “Matter determines the mind”
(materialistic)
- “God is the projection of the human mind”
- “manifested inwards nature of men”
(everything about God is disguised
properties of man, the secret of theology
is anthropology)
- “religious condition on man” (god is not an
illusion but a being separate from man)
dependent on man’s attribute (chair is
an object, and does not depend on the
attribute of man)
c. Subject (GOD, would also change) ->
Predicate (Man’s Attributes, changes)
o If a person is a smoke, he will
worship a smoking God
o SOCIETY “virtues change” ->
RELIGION (not about advancement
of God, but advancement of
human society), thus “god
changes”
- What is real is the changing virutes
- Temples -> gods in temples”
- Forces of nature -> “god-nature”
- “greek, power” -> “Zeus and Dionysus”
- technology -> “machines and computers”
d. God is the projection of the positive traits of man
- “self-glorification” – purified version of your
own self
- if a person has certain attributes, what
kind of god would they conceive of?
-

Feuerbach’s argument against God

1. God is a summation of human qualities
a. Qualities that are perfect are what
make up God, take away the
properties, there is no God without
such, God is impossible
b. (1) “What God is for me” – a subjective
idea, an individual standpoint of the
idea of God
i. Ex. Christians -> Christ,
Muslims -> Allah, Eagle ->
Winged Being, Greeks -> Zeus
(2) “What God is in himself” – the
objective being, independent and
universally true, god’s existence is