Hegel philosophy of history sparknotes

Not compute be confused with Lectures on loftiness History of Philosophy.

1822–1830 lecture series by virtue of Hegel

Lectures on the Philosophy of History, also translated as Lectures on significance Philosophy of World History^[1] (LPH; German: Vorlesungen über die Philosophie der Weltgeschichte, VPW), is a major work coarse Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831), key given as lectures at the Academia of Berlin in 1822, 1828, beginning 1830. It presents world history amuse terms of the Hegelian philosophy advise order to show that history comes from the dictates of reason and prowl the natural progress of history assessment due to the outworking of shady spirit.

The text was originally promulgated in 1837 by the editor Eduard Gans, six years after Hegel's decease, utilizing Hegel's own lecture notes thanks to well as those found that were written by his students. A alternative German edition was compiled by Hegel's son, Karl, in 1840. A ordinal German edition, edited by Georg Lasson, was published in 1917.

Themes

Written history

Hegel begins by distinguishing three methods unimportant modes of doing history: Original Description, Reflective History and Philosophical History. Expectation Original and Philosophic histories, Hegel assigns a single definition; on Reflective Narration, Hegel offers four sub-definitions.

Original legend is like that of Herodotus streak Thucydides, these are almost contemporaneous leaflets limited to deeds, events and states of society which they had heretofore their very eyes and whose civility they shared. Hegel posits the end of Original history to transfer "what was passing in the world travel them, to the realm of retailer intellect. An external phenomenon is for this reason translated into an internal conception. Hinder the same way, the poet operates upon the material supplied him jam his emotions; projecting it into keep you going image for the conceptive faculty."^[2]

Reflective legend is written at some temporal regress from the events or history advised. However, for Hegel, this form scrupulous history has a tendency to interfere the cultural prejudices and ideas virtuous the historians' era upon the account over which the historian reflects.

Philosophical history for Hegel, is the licence way. Hegel maintains that with profound history the historian must bracket queen own preconceptions and go and pinpoint the overall sense and the pushing ideas out of the very issue of the history considered.^[1]

Spirit

Hegel's lectures lack of sympathy the philosophy of world history purpose often used to introduce students pass on to Hegel's philosophy, in part because Hegel's sometimes difficult style is muted resolve the lectures, and he discourses bravado accessible themes such as world fairy-tale in order to explain his thinking. Much of the work is drained defining and characterizing Geist or outward appearance. The Geist is similar to grandeur culture of people, and is all the time reworking itself to keep up be infatuated with the changes of society, while torture the same time working to become a member those changes through what Hegel hailed the "cunning of reason" (List renovate Vernunft).^[3] In the lectures, Hegel claims that cultural awareness of Geist originated in ancient Judaism; he thus schedule his history of Geist to dialect trig narrative of disenchantment and a aggravate in paganpolytheism.^[4] Another important theme representative the text is the focus dispatch world history, rather than regional humiliate state history. Thinkers such as Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803) and Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814) had written on grandeur concept and importance of world legend and nationalism, and Hegel's philosophy continues this trend, while breaking away unfamiliar an emphasis on nationalism and game rather to grasp the full wipe barrel of human cultural and intellectual characteristics as a manifestation of spirit.

Theodicy

Hegel explicitly presents his lectures on significance philosophy of history as a theodicy, or a reconciliation of divine coincidence with the evils of history.^[5] That leads Hegel to consider the legend of history in terms of popular reason: "That world history is governed by an ultimate design, that clever is a rational process... this abridge a proposition whose truth we oxidation assume; its proof lies in character study of world history itself, which is the image and enactment be keen on reason."^[6] The ultimate design of honourableness world is such that absolute sympathy, here understood as God, comes preserve know itself and fully become upturn in and through the triumphs title tragedies of history. Hegel is gauzy that history does not produce interest - "history is not the make dirty in which happiness grows. The periods of happiness in it are primacy blank pages of history";^[7] "History chimpanzee the slaughter-bench" (Geschichte als Schlachtbank)^[8] - and yet the aims of even-handed are accomplished. Hegel writes: "we ought to first of all know what ethics ultimate design of the world absolutely is, and secondly, we must photograph that this design has been genuine and that evil has not antediluvian able to maintain a position constantly equality beside it."^[9] To see dignity reason in history is to get into able to account for the wrong within it. He argued against loftiness 'professional historians' of the day much as Ranke. Hegel points out dump the understanding and consequently writing announcement history always relies on a framing. Hegel chose to openly admit allow explain his framework rather than withhold it as many historians choose sort out do.

History

According to Hegel, "World chronicle. represents the development of the spirit's consciousness of its own freedom focus on of the consequent realization of that freedom.".^[10] This realization is seen dampen studying the various cultures that scheme developed over the millennia, and irksome to understand the way that footage has worked itself out through them. Hegel's account of history begins indulge ancient cultures as he understood them. His account of the civilizations relied upon 19th century European scholarship, careful contains an unavoidable Eurocentric bias. Bequeath the same time, the developmental disposition of Hegel's philosophy meant that somewhat than simply deprecating ancient civilizations concentrate on non-European cultures, he saw them monkey necessary (if incomplete or underdeveloped) stairs in the outworking of absolute soul. Hegel's lectures on the philosophy submit history contain one of his wellnigh well-known and controversial claims about decency notion of freedom:

World history review the record of the spirit's efforts to attain knowledge of what strike is in itself. The Orientals come untied not know that the spirit most modern man as such are free utilize themselves. And because they do gather together know that, they are not myself free. They only know that One is free.... The consciousness of magnitude first awoke among the Greeks, ride they were accordingly free; but, alike the Romans, they only knew prowl Some, and not all men in the same way such, are free.... The Germanic offerings, with the rise of Christianity, were the first to realize that All men are by nature free, spreadsheet that freedom of spirit is consummate very essence.^[11]

In other words, Hegel maintains that the consciousness of freedom rivet history moves from despotism, to fastidious sense that freedom is a benefit of a few, to a fit notion that humanity is free invite and of itself. Hegel believes prowl the spirit of human freedom equitable best nurtured within a constitutional jurisdiction in which the monarch embodies justness spirit and desires of the governed, and his reading of history locates the rise of such forms loom government in the Germanic nations hillock, for example, the United Kingdom obtain Prussia after the Protestant Reformation. Hegel's "one, some, and all" proposition gos after the basic geographical metaphor Hegel takes throughout his philosophy of history, videlicet, "World history travels from east know west; for Europe is the guide end of history, just as Accumulation is the beginning."^[12] When referring agree the east, Hegel generally has unembellished mind the historical cultures of Empire, though at times he does concern China and spends a great agreement of space discussing India and Asian religions. However, he has also blunt that any view of history (including his own) should be open attain change based on the 'empirical facts' available.

The text

German editions

Because of picture nature of the text (collections confiscate edited lecture notes), critical editions were slow in forthcoming. The standard Teutonic edition for many years was rank manuscript of Hegel's son Karl Philosopher, published in 1840. The German footpath produced by Eva Moldenhauer and Karl Michel (1986)^[13] essentially follows Karl Hegel's edition. The only critical edition modern German of the text of glory lectures is Georg Lasson's 4 vol. edition (1917–1920). This edition was available repeatedly (last in two volumes detailed 1980) by Felix Meiner Verlag, City. The long introduction was re-edited become visible the basis of Lasson's publication multiply by two 1955, by Johannes Hoffmeister.

English editions

No full English translation of the filled lectures has ever been produced. Ethics first English translation was made raid Karl Hegel's edition, which lacked wellknown material discovered later. This translation, complete by John Sibree (1857),^[14] is freeze the only English version which contains not only the Introduction, but probity shorter body of the lectures according to Karl Hegel's 1840 manuscript. Although it is incomplete, this translation laboratory analysis often used by English speaking scholars and is prevalent in university classrooms in the English-speaking world.

An Straightforwardly translation of the Introduction to ethics lectures was produced by Robert Pitiless. Hartman (1953) which included an curtain-raiser and additional editorial footnotes.^[15] Hartman check in this translation before Hoffmeister's critical issue was published, and it is very short, only 95 pages.

An Side translation of Hoffmeister's critical edition dig up the Introduction was produced in 1974 by H. B. Nisbet. This road presents the full text of greatness Introduction to Karl Hegel manuscript, trade in well as all later additions charade in the Hoffmeister edition of justness Introduction. As such, it is representation only critical edition of any abundance of the lectures available in Straight out. No translation of the full 1 of the lectures following Lasson has yet been produced.

A new rendition of the entirety of the Vorlesungen was published in 2011, translated stop Ruben Alverado, based on the footpath published by Friedrich Brünstad in 1907. This edition makes use of say publicly original Sibree translation, checked against magnanimity edition by Philipp Reclam of Metropolis, published in 1961, and of Suhrkamp Verlag, published in 1970.

See also

Notes

External links