G.W.F.

Hegel (1770-1831)

Historian of the World Spirit

PRELIMINARIES:
A. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel: a man of many
contradictions

Hegel is “viewed in very different ways by different readers.”

(Marnie Hughes-Warrington, Fifty Key Thinkers on History)

1. His university professors reported that he

was an average student with only a
mediocre grasp of philosophy; yet, most
scholars now consider him one of the
greatest thinkers of modern philosophy.
PRELIMINARIES:

2. Some view Hegel as a theist and others

as an atheist; and advocates of each
interpretation quote Hegel’s own words in
defense of their position.

3. Hegel saw all history as leading to the

realization of human freedom; and yet he
also saw individuals as the pawns of the
irresistible force of historical destiny.
PRELIMINARIES:
B. Hegel is not just a philosopher of history; he is
also a historian of philosophy.

• His philosophy of history is mainly a collection of

lectures published posthumously as The Philosophy
of History/Lectures on the Philosophy of
History/Lectures on the Philosophy of World History.

• His history of philosophy is collected in his

Lectures on the History of Philosophy.

• Could we consider him as a historian as well?

 Hegel on a historian
• Every historian “brings his categories with him
and sees the data through them. In everything
that is supposed to be scientific, Reason must
awaken and reflection applied.” (Hegel, The
Philosophy of History)
• Comment: Hegel anticipates the debates on
objectivity of historical interpretations.
• The philosophy of history is core to Hegel’s
thinking—not only in his lecture notes on the
philosophy of history but the Philosophy of
Right and the Phenomenology of Spirit as well.
 Hegel’s context
• High point in German philosophical culture
(Kant, Fichte, Schelling);
• Enlightenment (rationality and progress);
• French Revolution (freedom, reason, progress,
Liberte, Fraternite, Egalite)
 1806: Napoleon’s
forces invaded Jena
1770: Birth of (French Occupation;
Beethoven; Kant was universities were
1771: Birth of closed down)
made professor at
Napoleon
Konigsberg

1770 1780 1790 1795 1800 1805 1810 1815 1820 1825 1830

Birth of Hegel 1788: He After 1801: 1807: The 1816-1818:

entered 1931: Hegel died
(1770, graduation: He Instructor at Phenomenology Professor of
protestant in a cholera
Southern became tutor the University of the Spirit was philosophy at
theological epidemic
Germany) of wealthy of Jena published Heidelberg
seminary families
1819-1931: High
Here, he began point of his
Here, he met
to write his first career;
the poet
major work, The appointed to a
Holderlin and
Phenomenology prestigious chair
the brillian
of the Spirit of philosophy at
philosophy
the University of
student
Berlin
Friedrich
Schelling
 The importance of history
• With the exception of Augustine, it is
significant to note that very little has been said
about the role of history in our understanding
of human experience.
• Philosophers before Hegel (with the exception
of Augustine) were concerned with the search
for eternal, timeless truths.
Unique feature of 19th century philosophy:

• Dramatic change of outlook in the 19th

century: history was all-important to
philosophy.
• History was regarded from a philosophical
viewpoint, and more importantly, philosophy
was regarded from a historical point of view.
• It paved the way of the rise of “historicism”
 The rise of historicism
Main thesis: everything human is affected by the
processes of history, such that any truth claim
only has validity in terms of its place and role
in this historical development.

“Whatever happens, every individual is a child of

his time; so philosophy is its own time
apprehended in thoughts” (Hegel, Philosophy of
Right)
 Key point of historicism: No idea has a single, fixed
meaning, and no form of understanding has an eternal,
unchanging relationship to the truth.

IMMANUEL KANT HEGEL AND MARX

• Mind is not passive in its • There is multiplicity of

encounter with the world.
• Rather, it is active and creative
in structuring how the world
appears to us.
• Meaning, human experience
reflects not the structure of
reality, but rather the form of
human experience
perspectives.
• Different historical eras have
different rational ideas.
• This is because reason itself
undergoes historical evolution (as it
is continually affected by the
changing conditions of individual
and social life)
 Key principles in Hegel:
1. Every particular truth and every particular thing
can only be understood as a partial aspect of the
totality.
• To know a person, one must also understand
his/her larger context in which he/she developed:
political, cultural, economic, biological, etc.
• Point: any particular thing is a fragment torn from
the whole; everything must be understood as a
part of a larger context.
2. Nothing can be understood apart from its
place in history.
• Hegel sees the discipline of history as
significant because it can reveal profound
truths about ourselves and the nature of
reality.
3. “What is rational is real and what is real is
rational” (Philosophy of Right, preface).
• Harmony between human reason and the
world (actual/real).
 Hegel’s philosophy of history
Superficial understanding of
history of philosophy
• It is merely a collection of
differing opinions—a comedy
of errors.
Hegel
• There is a logic and purpose to the
development of history.
• No concept should be understood in
isolation; for each one is a necessary
prelude to the next one.
• Is it possible that a Rizal could have
produced Adorno o Marcuse’s
philosophy if only he had been critical
enough?
 That Hegel himself attached great importance to the history
of philosophy is attested to by the fact that he repeated the
course so often, revising the course, particularly the
introductory lectures, over and over again…Hegel was not
the sort of historian who gives a disinterested account of
exactly what each philosopher said. His task, as he
conceived it, was rather to show that the development of
pure thought so elaborately worked out in his Science of
Logic has its exact counterpart in the empirically verifiable
development of philosophy from the first faltering steps of
Thales to the elaboration of Hegel’s own system…the History
of philosophy can be considered…as presenting an historical
account of the development of speculative thinking itself.
(Quentin Lauer, “Hegel as Historian of Philosophy” (1974)]
Hegel stresses the importance of the history of philosophy for
philosophy. He typically does not distinguish between
philosophy and its history. He approaches the history of
philosophy as in effect a giant Socratic dialogue, in which
different perspectives vie with each other in an ongoing
search for the truth. There is no single royal road to the truth,
that is, a preferred philosophical tendency, and different
theories recommend themselves as relatively better with
respect to alternatives. Later philosophers have before them
the previous discussion. Philosophy builds on all that is
positive in the preceding history of philosophy in attempting
to make progress toward the “solution” of outstanding
problems. (Rockmore, “Hegel” in Tucker, A Companion to
the Philosophy of History)
 Recap:
1. The history of philosophy is not a mere collection
of different thoughts. On the contrary, in all times
there is only a single philosophy, whose
differences express different, but necessary
aspects of a single principle.
2. The development of philosophy is not contingent,
but rather the necessary development of the
phases of this science.
3. Most recent philosophy in any given historical
period is the development and truth of its spirit.
 Philosophy of history: Are we pawns in
history’s game?
Three ways of treating history:
- Original history, Reflective history,
Philosophical history
If we look at Philippine history, we find an
overwhelming succession of presidents, deaths
of influential persons, national artists, Palanca
awardees, hopeful EDSA revolutions, “fake”
investigations in the Senate, natural calamities
like Yolanda, etcetera.

But, what is the point of all these? Does history

have any meaning? Or the cynics are correct in
saying that history is merely “sound and fury,
signifying nothing”?

That, I think, is one of the more important

contributions of Hegel, i.e., making us aware of
the importance of history—a topic most
philosophers (like us) had neglected.
 History is purposeful
From time to time, history brings us a sense
of “hopeless sadness”.

According to Hegel, history appears to be

“the slaughter-bench at which the happiness
of peoples, the wisdom of states, and the
virtue of individuals have been sacrificed”
(Reason in History, 27).

However, Hegel believes there is a redeeming purpose to all of

these. He said, “It has proceeded rationally, that it represents the
rationally necessary course of the World Spirit, the Spirit whose
nature is indeed always one and the same, but whose one nature
unfolds in the course of the world” (RH, 12).
And so we ask: What is this nature that is unfolding?

The answer of Hegel is “freedom”. Because “world history is the

progress of the consciousness of freedom” (RH, 24).

Meaning, the whole process of world history is a process of the human

spirit becoming aware of and realizing its freedom.

We have to note that freedom, for Hegel, cannot be located within the
individual person, but must be made concrete and realized in the
context of a national culture.

Only 1 person was free: The Greeks realized that Modern world: recognition
the ruler some people were free that all are free
In the play of history, humans “are all the time the
unconscious tools and organs of the world mind at work
within them” (Philosophy of Rights, 344).

“Hegel does not think individuals are fundamental in society.

Individuals are like the waves on the surface of the ocean.
Waves are not something distinct and separate from the
ocean, but they rise out of it and return to it and are simply a
manifestation of the forces at work in the that great body of
water. Your relationship to society is like that” (William
Lawhead, A Voyage of Discovery: A History of Western
Philosophy, 392).
 Our psyche is product of several institutions
(culture industries). Your aspirations in life,
choice of clothes, and worldviews are formed by
these culture industries.

At the same time, the life of our nation is shaped

by our subjective choices. That is why we hear
the saying, “We deserved the kind of government
we have”.

Our collective behavior is a manifestation (or the

signs) of the times that the philosophers,
economists, and social scientists are trying to
comprehend.

COMMENT: Can we put the blame on some dictators

in human history? They become such because they
were products of their times. Can we blame Marcos
and his cronies?
Hegel says each moment in history is at least partially
justified because of the role it plays in the total story.
Even those times of great suffering are like the pains of
a mother that are necessary to birth her own offspring.
We will never understand history if we get lost in their
details and fail to comprehend the larger picture [William
Lawhead, A Voyage of Discovery, 393).
 The dialectic
• The word “dialectic” is derived from the Greek word for
“conversation” and refers to the way our ideas develop through
the process of conflict and opposition.
• For Hegel, ideas have their own internal logic (grammar).
Meaning, when a partial truth is examined and pushed to its
limits, the process (opposition) will reveal its own inadequacies
at the same time that it points to its successor.
• Thus, for Hegel, every idea is just a temporary station on mind’s
journey toward completely adequate knowledge.
• In Plato’s dialogues, Socrates employed a dialectical method in
which the confrontation of opposing ideas in the course of a
conversation progressively led to more refined ideas, hence
bringing the participants closer to the truth.
“The Hegelian dialectic is similar to its Platonic predecessor, the Socratic dialogue,
i.e., a conversation between two human beings on some important subject like the
nature of the good or the meaning of justice. Such discussions are resolved on the
basis of the principle of contradiction: that is, the less self-contradictory side wins,
or, if both are found in the course of the conversation to be self-contradictory, then
a third position emerges free of the contradictions of the initial two. But this third
position may itself contain new, unforeseen contradictions, thereby giving rise to
yet another conversation and another resolution. For Hegel, the dialectic takes
place not only on the level of philosophical discussions, but between societies, or,
as contemporary social scientists would say, between socio-economic systems.
One might describe history as a dialogue between societies, in which those with
grave internal contradictions fail and are succeeded by others that manage to
overcome those contradictions. Thus for Hegel the Roman Empire ultimately
collapsed because it established the universal legal equality of all men, but without
recognizing their rights and inner human dignity. This recognition could only be
found in the Judeo-Christian tradition that established the universal equality of man
on the basis of his moral freedom. The Christian world was in turn subject to other
contradictions. The classical example was the medieval city, which protected
within it merchants and traders who constituted the germs of a capitalist economic
order. Their superior economic efficiency eventually exposed the irrationality of
moral constraints on economic productivity, and thereby abolished the very city
that gave them birth” (Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man).
 The end of history?
• Our discussion raises the question: Where is history
heading and when will we get there?
• “Many passages suggest that Hegel thought his system
was the final one. Yet some lingering questions still
remain about how he conceives the role of his philosophy
in history. Does he think his philosophy is the Absolute
fully revealed in all its glory? Or does he think it is only
the next stage in the autobiography of the World Spirit, a
stage that later philosophical insights eventually will
supersede?” (William Lawhead, A Voyage of Discovery,
394).
 Is Hegel determinist?
• "World history exhibits nothing other than the plan of Providence."
(Hegel, Phenomenology of the Spirit)
• “In the pure light of this Divine Idea…the illusion that the world is a
mad or foolish happening disappears.” (Hegel, Lectures on the
Philosophy of History)
• The principle of Development involves also the existence of a latent
germ of being — a capacity or potentiality striving to realize itself.
This formal conception finds actual existence in Spirit; which has the
History of the World for its theatre, its possession, and the sphere of
its realization. It is not of such a nature as to be tossed to and fro
amid the superficial play of accidents, but is rather the absolute
arbiter of things; entirely unmoved by contingencies, which, indeed, it
applies and manages for its own purposes. (Hegel, Lectures on the
Philosophy of History)
• Spirit does not toss itself about in the external play of
chance occurrences; on the contrary, it is that which
determines history absolutely, and it stands firm against
the chance occurrences which it dominates and exploits
for its own purpose. (David Burrell, “A Historian Looks at
Hegel Philosophically”)
• The question also assumes the form of the union of
Freedom and Necessity; the latent abstract process of
Spirit being regarded as Necessity, while that which
exhibits itself in the conscious will of men, as their interest,
belongs to the domain of Freedom. (Hegel, Lectures on
the Philosophy of History)
• COMMENT: What I understand here is that Hegel fuses Necessity
and Contingency, Determinism and Freedom. The Spirit is destined
and necessitated to unfold in human history. But the agents of
history possess inherent freedom and consciousness that possess
individual interests and will.
• Hegel is not a determinist, though he does believe that world
historical events represent the necessary unfolding of the Spirit
through time. Hegel is not a contingency historian, though he
believes that chance occurrences do in fact happen in particular (or
limited) historical events. Like most historian-philosophers, Hegel
sees both as co-existing (just as the absolute and the particular must
both co-exist). (David Burrell, “A Historian Looks at Hegel
Philosophically”)
• “A reading of Hegel's historical works will reveal that historical accident and
contingency play a large role in them.” (Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and
the Last Man)
• Hegel's historical dialectic is more clearly teleological and progressive, moving
forward as it does to an ultimate freedom. Even so, the idea often attributed to
Hegel of an inevitable and guaranteed progress should not be taken as a given.
As Rolf Ahlers writes, "the mechanistic view of automatic progress...can be
traced neither to Marx nor to Hegel." Hegel explicitly states this: "The end of the
world spirit is realized in substance through the freedom of each individual."
(Behun, “The Historical Pivot”)
• Notwithstanding his view that history embodies reason, Hegel is famous for his
idea in the Philosophy of Right: “When philosophy paints its grey in grey then has
a shape of life grown old. By philosophy’s grey in grey it cannot be rejuvenated
but only understood. The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling
of dusk.” (Little, New Contributions to the Philosophy of History)
 Final words
• For Hegel, History is not unrelated events.
There is a meaningful pattern of progress.
However, the pattern is abstract and
metaphysical. History progresses dialectically
as a conflict of ideas. This notion of history is
ripe enough for Marx’s criticism.