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Philosophy of History (Great Books in Philosophy)

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Hegel's Philosophy of History is his easiest book to read. He angered some people by saying that History is Freedom, and so those countries which did not have Free States (in 1821, the year he wrote his book) were not truly part of History but part of the Pre-historic period. He begins with a narrative of Africa in 1821 which was steeped in Slavery, both internal and external. He stated that all nations were once at this level of Pre-history, where no king could last more than a year. But China was the first nation to make One but only One Person free, namely, the Emperor. This was the beginning of History. From this point Hegel traces those nations which increased Freedom slowly - from Egypt to Assyria to Babylon to Persia to Greece to Rome to Spain and then Europe as we know it today. The Idea of a Free Republic was born in Greece, but was first made material in Rome. Caesar opposed the Republic because he knew that the fullness of time had not yet come for it; so he opened up barbarian Europe instead. The Free Republic eventually grew to a point where a great, courageous World Historical Individual, Napoleon Bonaparte, overthrew the Medieval structures and paved the way for the eventual abolition of Slavery. Hegel was an Abolitionist and lived to see England and Spain renounce Slavery, but died long before Lincoln, so his view of the USA was pretty pessimistic.

Philosophy of History is Hegel's most accessible introduction to his thought.

The introduction and preface are the most valuable parts of the book.

Much of the book is only of historical interest. His history of Greece, Rome, Israel and the Germans cannot be taken seriously anymore. There are racist and jingoist views in this book that seriously date it.

On the other hand, the book clearly expresses Hegel's spiritual philosophy of an evolving God who learns from the history of the world that is his thought.

For those who are looking for an introduction to Hegel that is written in his own words, this book is invaluable.

Hegel's lectures on History (along with those of his on Law) probably represent the most accessible introduction to the thought of this very important German idealist.

Hegel's ideas on history and social organisation and Law had a critical influence on many key 19th and 20th century Philosophers, including Karl Marx, Isaiah Berlin and Karl Popper. While some philosophers followed Hegel, many also vigorously rejected his ideas and thought, and it is only more recently Hegel is undergoing a kind of rehabilitation in Philosophy.

This reaction though is understandable since Hegel is a very difficult philosopher to both read and understand. His prose is certainly in my experience the most awfully written and most obscure of any philosopher, and much of the time Hegel seems to be writing nonsense which makes little sense (especially in his more idealist works like phenomeology of spirit). It is understandable then why Schopenhauer called him a 'charlatan' who spouted nothing but 'sophistry' which ruined the intellectual background of Germany, and Bertrand Russell said his philosopy stems from a 'set of simple logical mistakes.'

Nevertheless Hegel is a great Philosopher, and the fact he is extremely obscure does not invalidate some very original and profound and interesting ideas which are to be found in his philosophy, especially in his notion of the dialectic, of Spirit manifesting itself through history and historical events, of his interesting reaction to Kant, his ideas on Art and the reactions to his philosophy from students like Marx. His idealism also influenced important philosophers like Fichte and Schelling in the 19th century, and in the 20th century idealists such as McTaggart, F.H. Bradley, and J.N. Findlay, who built on his thought and provided valuable new philosophical ways of thinking about the Absolute and in bringing religion and mystical experience back into a better relationship with Philosophy, given much of Philosophy since the time of Hume has savagely attacked religion as meaningless nonsense. In the 21st century, it is probably Hegel's thought on ethics, art, history and religion which have the most relevance.

I read this book for a graduate class in history. Hegel's philosophy of history is perhaps the most fully developed philosophical theory of history that attempts to discover meaning or direction in history. Hegel incorporates a deeper historicism into his philosophical theories than his predecessors or successors. According to Hegel, the events whose story is told by political and legal history can be given a philosophical interpretation that will bring out its philosophical meaning. He does this himself in his lectures on the Philosophy of History. He views it to be a central task for philosophy to comprehend its place in the unfolding of history. History is for Hegel the development of Freedom, or rather, of the consciousness of Freedom. History is the process by which Spirit becomes conscious of itself. Individual thinkers, artists, and historical actors are primarily the means or instruments by which the collective spirit (God in the world) becomes conscious of truth.

Hegel constructs world history into a narrative of stages of human freedom, from the public freedom of the polis and the citizenship of the Roman Republic, to the individual freedom of the Protestant Reformation, to the civic freedom of the modern state. He attempts to incorporate the civilizations of India and China into his understanding of world history, though he regards those civilizations as static and therefore pre-historical. He constructs specific moments as "world-historical" events that were in the process of bringing about the final, full stage of history and human freedom. For example, Napoleon's conquest of much of Europe is portrayed as a world-historical event doing history's work by establishing the terms of the rational bureaucratic state. Hegel finds reason in history; but it is a latent reason, and one that can only be comprehended when the fullness of history's work is finished.

Many in Western Europe saw Europe or the Western European nations as the pinnacle of historical development, poised to carry their mission civilisatrice to Asia, Africa, Oceania. Yes, they could say, ancient civilizations had contributed to the eventual emergence of modern European civilization, but Europe had integrated what was valuable in those ancient insights into a higher form and it could now turn around and offer this higher form of culture to the rest of humanity who had remained "backward" and "underdeveloped." Hegel has very little to say about the New World. He acknowledges that the Native Americans have been overtaken by Europeans, thus the New World is a continuation of the Old World in its civilization and culture. He sees history progressing in America (populated by Englishmen), but finds that it has not matured yet. He sees America as a growing, prosperous, and industrious nation with a population that is a federation of people who love freedom. However, the nation is not politically fixed yet and he thinks, "a real state and a real government will arise only after a distinction of classes has arisen, when wealth and poverty become extreme." However, this can't happen as long as America has vast territory for people to expand and populate, he thinks these changes can't come about until America is as crowded as Europe so that people agitate each other and clamor for change. I think Hegel foresaw the Civil War. I think the America he ultimately envisioned is finally here today. Our country seems to be equally divided politically and I am not sure our present political institutions can hold us together.

Hegel once described Napoleon, whom he observed in the flesh just before or after one of Napoleon's major victories, as "the world spirit on horseback." Napoleon at that time was a major expression of the dynamic process which was transforming Europe in a certain direction. When Napoleon had served his purpose, he was discarded by the World Spirit, which then adopted other political leaders as its means.

It is worth observing that Hegel's philosophy of history is not the caricature of speculative philosophical reasoning that analytic philosophers sometimes paint it. His philosophical approach is not based solely on foundational a priori reasoning. Instead he proposes an "immanent" encounter between philosophical reason and the historical given. His prescription is that the philosopher should seek to discover the rational within the real--not to impose the rational upon the real. "To comprehend what is, this is the task of philosophy, because what is, is reason." Hegel's approach is neither purely philosophical nor purely empirical; instead, he undertakes to discover within the best historical knowledge of his time, an underlying rational principle that can be philosophically articulated.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in philosophy, political science, and history.

Obviously this said somewhere in the fine print while I was ordering but this is a so called OCR copy of the book. What this means is the book has no index, no table of contents or the preliminary pages, no major/visible chapter headings or pages diving chapters. Its one continuous long string of text from the first page to the last. I had no idea that I was ordering an OCR copy when I placed the order and so receiving it was an absolute disappointment. While I am going to return this book right away it is a warning to all future buyers to carefully check if their orders are an OCR copy. Amazon should place information about the book being an OCR copy upfront rather than below where the book description is.

I read this book for a graduate class in history. Hegel's philosophy of history is perhaps the most fully developed philosophical theory of history that attempts to discover meaning or direction in history. Hegel incorporates a deeper historicism into his philosophical theories than his predecessors or successors. According to Hegel, the events whose story is told by political and legal history can be given a philosophical interpretation that will bring out its philosophical meaning. He does this himself in his lectures on the Philosophy of History. He views it to be a central task for philosophy to comprehend its place in the unfolding of history. History is for Hegel the development of Freedom, or rather, of the consciousness of Freedom. History is the process by which Spirit becomes conscious of itself. Individual thinkers, artists, and historical actors are primarily the means or instruments by which the collective spirit (God in the world) becomes conscious of truth.

Hegel constructs world history into a narrative of stages of human freedom, from the public freedom of the polis and the citizenship of the Roman Republic, to the individual freedom of the Protestant Reformation, to the civic freedom of the modern state. He attempts to incorporate the civilizations of India and China into his understanding of world history, though he regards those civilizations as static and therefore pre-historical. He constructs specific moments as "world-historical" events that were in the process of bringing about the final, full stage of history and human freedom. For example, Napoleon's conquest of much of Europe is portrayed as a world-historical event doing history's work by establishing the terms of the rational bureaucratic state. Hegel finds reason in history; but it is a latent reason, and one that can only be comprehended when the fullness of history's work is finished.

Many in Western Europe saw Europe or the Western European nations as the pinnacle of historical development, poised to carry their mission civilisatrice to Asia, Africa, Oceania. Yes, they could say, ancient civilizations had contributed to the eventual emergence of modern European civilization, but Europe had integrated what was valuable in those ancient insights into a higher form and it could now turn around and offer this higher form of culture to the rest of humanity who had remained "backward" and "underdeveloped." Hegel has very little to say about the New World. He acknowledges that the Native Americans have been overtaken by Europeans, thus the New World is a continuation of the Old World in its civilization and culture. He sees history progressing in America (populated by Englishmen), but finds that it has not matured yet. He sees America as a growing, prosperous, and industrious nation with a population that is a federation of people who love freedom. However, the nation is not politically fixed yet and he thinks, "a real state and a real government will arise only after a distinction of classes has arisen, when wealth and poverty become extreme." However, this can't happen as long as America has vast territory for people to expand and populate, he thinks these changes can't come about until America is as crowded as Europe so that people agitate each other and clamor for change. I think Hegel foresaw the Civil War. I think the America he ultimately envisioned is finally here today. Our country seems to be equally divided politically and I am not sure our present political institutions can hold us together.

Hegel once described Napoleon, whom he observed in the flesh just before or after one of Napoleon's major victories, as "the world spirit on horseback." Napoleon at that time was a major expression of the dynamic process which was transforming Europe in a certain direction. When Napoleon had served his purpose, he was discarded by the World Spirit, which then adopted other political leaders as its means.

It is worth observing that Hegel's philosophy of history is not the caricature of speculative philosophical reasoning that analytic philosophers sometimes paint it. His philosophical approach is not based solely on foundational a priori reasoning. Instead he proposes an "immanent" encounter between philosophical reason and the historical given. His prescription is that the philosopher should seek to discover the rational within the real--not to impose the rational upon the real. "To comprehend what is, this is the task of philosophy, because what is, is reason." Hegel's approach is neither purely philosophical nor purely empirical; instead, he undertakes to discover within the best historical knowledge of his time, an underlying rational principle that can be philosophically articulated.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in philosophy, political science, and history.

An OCR copy should not be the first copy to come up on Amazon's site. I ordered this because I was ordering roughly 30 academic texts and did not have the time to pour through each description. There is absolutely no formatting, no table of contents, no index and the footnotes are muddled for the most part. Considering that this is already a difficult work in German, let alone in translation, it is impossible to decipher in the provided format. Worthless in an academic setting and should not be at the top of Amazon's list when you search for the work.

*This is not a review of the work itself, which is important for any understanding of Western philosophy.

(The page numbers come from the Brittanica Great Books Series, volume 46).

Hegel is trying to overcome the dilemma that social life poses: per man's subjective life the important thing is freedom of spirit. However, man also lives in community and the norms of the community often bind his freedom of spirit (it is to Hegel's credit that he recognized this problem generations before Nietszche and the existentialists).

Given Hegel's commitment about the fulfillment of spirit, it follows that communities grow. As seen above, Hegel's applies to history the problem of self-fulfillment. How does man realize the fulfillment of the Idea?

Eastern Cultures: Hegel notes that these cultures--India, China, Persia, Egypt--were unable to bring about a harmony of spirit and sense. The Greek world developed from the Oriental world because it was able to embody Geist in such a way to emancipate spirit from "dead matter" (258).

Jews: realization that God is pure, subjective Spirit. Ends up negating finite reality.

Greek: opposite of Jewish mentality. Harmonizes God with "natural expression." Ends up with idolatry. Greek polis is pariochial. Each state his its own God. A universal realization of spirit is thus impossible. Men were identified with Greek state. Democracy natural expression. There is a necessary contradiction within the Greek polis: only represents a part of finite reality.

Romans: Origin of the idea as "Person," bearer of "abstract right".

Christianity: the finite subject and absolute spirit can be reconciled. The task of history is to make this reconciliation public--this is the Church.

Germans: they were to take it to the next stage.

The rest of European history is a working out these processes, a transformation of institutions. It is hear that we see feudalism, etc. At this point we need to correct a mistake about Hegel: Hegel is not saying that world history climaxes with Prussian Germany. There is no sensible way he could have believed that. Germany was weak and defeated when he wrote (it would have been interesting and perhaps more perceptive to say that Russia was the bearer of the World Spirit, especially in light of 20th century politics). Nonetheless, as Hegel notes and as his critics routinely miss, history did take an interesting turn in the 19th century and the force of ideas does not simply stop because the historian wants them to stop.

Monarchy and the State

Hegel sees "the state" as the mode in which the individual enjoys his freedom, but only in the sense of the willing according to the whole. In order to avoid confusion, Hegel must be seen as continuing Herder's thoughts: healthy states are organic outgrowths of individuals and communities (170).

Another term of possible confusion is Hegel's use of "constitution." By it he does not mean the vehicle of salvation that American conservatives think. A constitution is simply how society is arranged and not necessarily on paper (173).

Hegel writes, "Now monarchy is that kind of constitution which does indeed unite the members of a body politic in the head of government as in a point; but regards that head neither as the absolute dictator nor the arbitrary ruler, but as a power whose will is regulated by the same principle of law as the obedience of the subject (208).

American constitutionalists love to pretend that monarchy = despotism, but Hegel demonstrates that this is not the case. If we judge the world on how modern America develops, we will fail to understand Hegel. In Hegel's time, as per most of history, societies were often ethnically unified along a cultural (usually religious) center. Because of that, the monarch usually would not will something to the detriment of his subjects. Today's America, however, is officially predicated on the negation of that unifying center and Americans, even (especially!) conservatives, cannot understand that.

Hegel warns of the chaos of the Republicanism that plagued Greece and Rome. While it is good that man is free and makes decisions, the problem arises when all men are free and make decisions that contradict one another. This kind of Republicanism necessarily leads to oligarchy, for the the individual with the most power and money will make the most powerful decision (and thus negate the weaker individual's decision and free choice). By contrast, Hegel points to the monarch as the final arbiter (281).

Conclusion

This is probably the best place to start with Hegel. One should consult a history of philosophy manual and get reasonably familiar with Hegel's terms. Having done that, this text is fairly easy to read, if somewhat boring at times.

I read this book for a graduate class in history. Hegel's philosophy of history is perhaps the most fully developed philosophical theory of history that attempts to discover meaning or direction in history. Hegel incorporates a deeper historicism into his philosophical theories than his predecessors or successors. According to Hegel, the events whose story is told by political and legal history can be given a philosophical interpretation that will bring out its philosophical meaning. He does this himself in his lectures on the Philosophy of History. He views it to be a central task for philosophy to comprehend its place in the unfolding of history. History is for Hegel the development of Freedom, or rather, of the consciousness of Freedom. History is the process by which Spirit becomes conscious of itself. Individual thinkers, artists, and historical actors are primarily the means or instruments by which the collective spirit (God in the world) becomes conscious of truth.

Hegel constructs world history into a narrative of stages of human freedom, from the public freedom of the polis and the citizenship of the Roman Republic, to the individual freedom of the Protestant Reformation, to the civic freedom of the modern state. He attempts to incorporate the civilizations of India and China into his understanding of world history, though he regards those civilizations as static and therefore pre-historical. He constructs specific moments as "world-historical" events that were in the process of bringing about the final, full stage of history and human freedom. For example, Napoleon's conquest of much of Europe is portrayed as a world-historical event doing history's work by establishing the terms of the rational bureaucratic state. Hegel finds reason in history; but it is a latent reason, and one that can only be comprehended when the fullness of history's work is finished.

Many in Western Europe saw Europe or the Western European nations as the pinnacle of historical development, poised to carry their mission civilisatrice to Asia, Africa, Oceania. Yes, they could say, ancient civilizations had contributed to the eventual emergence of modern European civilization, but Europe had integrated what was valuable in those ancient insights into a higher form and it could now turn around and offer this higher form of culture to the rest of humanity who had remained "backward" and "underdeveloped." Hegel has very little to say about the New World. He acknowledges that the Native Americans have been overtaken by Europeans, thus the New World is a continuation of the Old World in its civilization and culture. He sees history progressing in America (populated by Englishmen), but finds that it has not matured yet. He sees America as a growing, prosperous, and industrious nation with a population that is a federation of people who love freedom. However, the nation is not politically fixed yet and he thinks, "a real state and a real government will arise only after a distinction of classes has arisen, when wealth and poverty become extreme." However, this can't happen as long as America has vast territory for people to expand and populate, he thinks these changes can't come about until America is as crowded as Europe so that people agitate each other and clamor for change. I think Hegel foresaw the Civil War. I think the America he ultimately envisioned is finally here today. Our country seems to be equally divided politically and I am not sure our present political institutions can hold us together.

Hegel once described Napoleon, whom he observed in the flesh just before or after one of Napoleon's major victories, as "the world spirit on horseback." Napoleon at that time was a major expression of the dynamic process which was transforming Europe in a certain direction. When Napoleon had served his purpose, he was discarded by the World Spirit, which then adopted other political leaders as its means.

It is worth observing that Hegel's philosophy of history is not the caricature of speculative philosophical reasoning that analytic philosophers sometimes paint it. His philosophical approach is not based solely on foundational a priori reasoning. Instead he proposes an "immanent" encounter between philosophical reason and the historical given. His prescription is that the philosopher should seek to discover the rational within the real--not to impose the rational upon the real. "To comprehend what is, this is the task of philosophy, because what is, is reason." Hegel's approach is neither purely philosophical nor purely empirical; instead, he undertakes to discover within the best historical knowledge of his time, an underlying rational principle that can be philosophically articulated.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in philosophy, political science, and history.

The translation of J. Sibree, copyright 1899, in the revised edition I am looking at from a library in an old city that has plenty of Irish Catholics but also many churches that attempt to maintain the kind of righteousness maintained by Hegel on page 456:

Lastly, as to disposition,
we have already remarked
that in the Protestant Church
the reconciliation of Religion
with Legal Right has taken place.
In the Protestant world there is no sacred,
no religious conscience in a state of separation from,
or perhaps even hostility to Secular Right.

Part I of the book, The Philosophy of History, begins with The Oriental World, and Section I is on China. When Hegel was giving his lectures, a Chinese document of history from 2357 years before Christ, was more than a century older than documents from Egyptian, Assyrian, and Indian history. Hegel has a fundamental understanding of the oldest document:

Here we have the One Being
of the State supremely dominant --
the Substance, which, still hard
and inflexible, resembles nothing
but itself --
includes no other element.

Hegel provides some details about maintaining respect within the family, and the Emperor is described as exercising power paternally.

He is the Patriarch,
and everything in the State
that can make any claim to reverence
is attached to him.

The Emperor claims the deepest reverence.

Modern society attempts to impose social pressures for human engineering to join in the gambling addiction that makes such epistemic modalities quaint. Any mythology that longs for such a golden age is no match for crimes against humor.