HEGEL’S
PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY- A SUMMARY
1.
Introduction
History plays a
crucial role in our life for we are all the products of history. Every aspect
of our life is very much affected by the past. So, to have a comprehensive
knowledge of our being in the present, we need to know our past. As like
history, so does philosophy play an important role in our life, for we are all
the products of rationality, which critically analyzes the life events of the
present and the past rather than accepting them blindly. So both, philosophy
and history would be incomplete without the other. Therefore, this little
article presents Hegel’s philosophy of History.
2.
Hegel’s
Philosophy of Spirit
In order to
understand Hegel’s philosophy of history, we require an understanding of his philosophy
of Spirit. For Hegel, history is ultimately is the history of the Spirit. He
speaks of Spirit in a dialectical process in which subjective spirit is the
thesis, objective spirit is the antithesis, and the Absolute Spirit is the
synthesis. Subjective spirit refers to the inner workings of the individuals
like thinking and willing.[1] Objective spirit is the objectification or
the material form of the subjective spirit/individual. It is the common spirit
of a society, an institution, custom or law manifesting the character and the
consciousness of the individuals of the group. The Absolute Spirit/the World
Spirit is the unity of the subjective and the objective spirit. It is this
Spirit that manifests in History and that governs the rise and fall of the
nations.[2]
3.
Hegel’s
Philosophy of History
Hegel was the
first one to put history on the map of philosophy, and thus he becomes the
first great philosopher of history.[3]
For Hegel, history is a history of Reason or Spirit as it unfolds itself and develops
in time and space, passing through different ways.[4]
History of the world is not meaningless without any hope but meaningful, for
there is a development of the consciousness of freedom found in history.
Therefore, history is a history with a purpose destined to Self-consciousness.[5]
3.1
Hegel’s Historical Outlook
Hegel’s lectures
on history manifests his historical outlooks: 1) The individuals are subordinate
to the Absolute Spirit which develops in history through them. 2) A
comprehensive understanding of the present requires our knowledge of the past.
3) One can’t know by knowing history alone but we need to also know how
rationality develops in history. 4) The way people of the past thought and
acted is radically different form the present but at the same time they are
co-related through a dialectical process.[6]
3.2
Types of History
Hegel’s
distinction of history is very instructive. He distinguishes three forms of
History: original history, reflective history and philosophical history. 1) Original
history is the history of events, the deeds of people, and the condition of
the society, written by the chronicler of ‘that’ time. 2) Reflective history
attempts to record the event of the past with interpretation and reflection
over it. Reflective history in turn can be divided into four types: A) Universal
history is the whole history of a people, a nation or the world, on the
basis of the original histories. B) Pragmatic history tries to
learn from the past for the betterment of the present. C) Critical history critically analyzes
the validity of the past historical accounts. It is a ‘history of history’. D) Specialized
history presents the history of any particular field like art, right,
religion, philosophy, etc. 3) Philosophical history presents how the
Spirit unfolds itself in time and how the World Spirit is developed through the
rational growth of the individual spirits.[7]
3.3
The World Historical Individuals
By ‘world
historical individuals’ Hegel means some great historical figures in history
like Alexander the great, Napoleon, Julius Caesar, Cicero, Socrates, etc. who
have influenced the history in a radical manner.[8] Such historical figures, in the pursuit of
their own private goals, also fulfilled the will of the World Spirit.[9]
They emerge as the instruments or the executives of the world spirit, and lift
the nations to a higher level of progress and perfection.[10]
Though they were unconscious of the general idea they were unfolding, yet they
were very practical and political. They were the heroes of the time, whose
deeds and words were the best of that time.[11]
They might have been immoral in certain matters but they should be hardly
judged in terms of morality that belonged to the epoch out of which a nation
was led.[12]
3.4
Consciousness of Freedom as the End of History
As gravity is
the essence of Matter, so also freedom is the essence of Spirit.[13]
Freedom, for Hegel, is not the absence of restrictions to do anything one wants
or to do that which pleases one.[14]
Freedom has to be realized within the limits of the moral duty, the laws of the
state.[15] And an individual becomes self-conscious only
when sees himself not just an individual will but as a part of the Universal
Will or the State which is the embodiment of the rational freedom.[16] This Spirit, throughout the history, aims at
the final cause, which we call as ‘Consciousness’ of its own freedom.[17]
3.5
Developmental Stages of Freedom in History
Hegel speaks of
Universal History as manifested in different stages and places. In the Oriental
stage, the Eastern nations like China, India and ancient Persia, though had
rich resources, believed that only One – the king or the ruler- is free. All
others are not totally free; they are just subordinate to the will of that
particular Emperor. Since they lacked in
the consciousness of true freedom, Hegel does not consider their histories in
his World history. In other words, they are outside history.[18] It is with Greco-Roman stage that the
history begins, for the consciousness of freedom began to develop in those
people. Greeks and Romans had the concept of citizenship and believed that only
some are free and others are slaves. It
is Germanic Stage that consciousness of freedom attained a culmination.
German people under the influence of Christianity believed that all men are
free. The consciousness of freedom, which is the final cause of the Spirit,
occurs here.[19]
3.6
The End of History
Though Hegel
seems to have said that in the Germanic world, the progress of the idea of
freedom reached its consummation. This is not indeed a climatic ending. His
description of Germanic stage is Germany of his own time, for he believed his
own country, in his own time, to have achieved the status of a rationally
organized society. Then what could be the end of History? The true ending of
history will blossom when the individuals start to govern themselves rationally
organized. Such is the situation where there is a perfect harmony between
individual wills and the laws of the State. There is no more restriction of
freedom, for individuals always choose to do that which is
rational/objective/universal.[20]
Conclusion
Though Hegel’s
philosophy of Spirit is so abstract, his philosophy of history and of right is
practical. Hegel sees history as a progress and explains it in a remarkable
way. But we can criticize Hegel first of all for universalizing the history of
only some nations as the World History ignoring all other nations, and secondly
for speaking of history as One History, for we know that there are different
histories of different people, different times and of different places, and
each of them is so unique that we can’t exclude them. This is the major mistake
Hegel makes. He also speaks of history as history of only great and
extraordinary people not of simple and ordinary people. He is also indifferent
to individuals that they are dissolved in his universal aspects.
BIBLIOGRAPHIES
Burns, Robert M.
and Hugh Rayment – Pickard (eds.) Philosophies
of History: From Enlightenment to Postmodernity. oxford: Blackwell
Publishers Ltd., 2000.
Caputo, John D. Philosophy
and Theology. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2006.
Inwood, Michael.
A
Hegel Dictionary. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 1992.
Singer, Peter. Hegel. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1983.
Stumpf, Samuel
Enoch. Socrates to Sartre: A History of
Philosophy. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1975.
[1]
Samuel Enoch Stumpf, Socrates to
Sartre: A History of Philosophy, 2nd ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill
Book Company, 1975) 333.
[2]
Michael Inwood, A Hegel Dictionary
(Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 1992) 275.
[3]
John D. Caputo, Philosophy and
Theology (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2006) 38.
[4]
Caputo, Philosophy and Theology,
39.
[5]
Peter Singer, Hegel (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1983) 11.
[6]
Inwood, A Hegel Dictionary,
120.
[7]
Inwood, A Hegel Dictionary, 119-120.
[8]
Robert M. Burns and Hugh Rayment – Pickard (eds.), Philosophies of History: From Enlightenment to Postmodernity
(oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd., 2000) 88.
[9]
Burns, Philosophies of History:
From Enlightenment to Postmodernity, 87.
[10]
Stumpf, Socrates to Sartre: A
History of Philosophy, 338.
[11]
Burns, Philosophies of History:
From Enlightenment to Postmodernity, 87.
[12]
Stumpf, Socrates to Sartre: A
History of Philosophy, 338.
[13]
Burns, Philosophies of History:
From Enlightenment to Postmodernity, 86.
[14]
Singer, Hegel, 27.
[15]
Stumpf, Socrates to Sartre: A
History of Philosophy, 335.
[16]
Stumpf, Socrates to Sartre: A
History of Philosophy, 336.
[17]
Burns, Philosophies of History:
From Enlightenment to Postmodernity, 86.
[18]
Singer, Hegel, 11.
[19]
Stumpf, Socrates to Sartre: A
History of Philosophy, 338.
[20]
Singer, Hegel, 22.
