Hegel

1
Hegel

• Philosophy 151
• Winter, 2004
• G. J. Mattey

2
Philosophy

• Philosophy is ultimately concerned with God,
  conceived as infinite and absolute
• Its secondary concern is with nature and the
  human mind, both of which are finite and relative
• Philosophy endeavors to relate nature and mind to
  each other, as well as to God
• Generally, philosophy can be defined as the
  thinking study of objects

3
Getting Started

• The non-philosophical sciences begin with
  accepted accounts of their objects and of the way
  they are to be investigated
• Philosophy must demonstrate not only the
  characteristics of its objects, but also their
  very existence
• It may not begin with any presuppositions
• How, then, is philosophical investigation to
  begin?

4
Thinking

• There are two modes of thinking
• Philosophical thinking (thinking proper), which
  leads to conceptual knowledge
• Active thinking, which appears in the guise of
  feeling, intuition and conception
• There is a prejudice which separates feeling from
  thinking, especially in the sphere of religion
• But feeling is only separated from
  meta-thinking, thinking about thinking

5
Levels of Thinking

• Meta-thinking is what gives rise to reflection,
  argumentation, and philosophy
• But feeling, intuition, and conception are
  themselves permeated with thought
• This lower-level thought gives rise to law,
  religion, and ethics
• Meta-thinking is not required for these
• Metaphysical proofs for Gods existence are not
  required for rational faith

6
Form and Content

• The differences among the kinds of thought are
  differences in its form
• Different thought-forms may share the same
  content
• But the way the content is related to the
  thought-form can obscure its identity
• The content of lower-level thinking is idea or
  conception (Vorstellung)
• The content of meta-thinking is concept (Begriff)

7
Ideas and Concepts

• Ideas are metaphors for concepts
• Understanding of an idea does not imply grasping
  of the corresponding concept
• Nor does grasping of the concept reveal what
  ideas correspond to it
• Ordinary consciousness finds it difficult to
  comprehend philosophy because it has not learned
  to bring out the conceptual content in its
  judgments (e.g., being in This leaf is green)

8
Philosophy and Ordinary Consciousness

• Philosophy must locate ordinary conceptions in
  the space of its concepts
• It must justify itself if there are any points of
  conflict
• Ordinary consciousness operates within its
  conceptions but presumes that this kind of
  thinking can be philosophical
• This view is corroborated by claims to intuitive
  knowledge (by Jacobi)

9
Actuality

• In all thinking, the forms of thought must be
  brought into harmony with actuality
• Thus we distinguish in experience between mere
  appearance and real existence
• The concepts produced by philosophical thinking
  must apply to what is real
• The highest and final aim of philosophy is to
  find its rational concepts in the real

10
Genuine Actuality

• In philosophy, as in religion, God is the only
  genuine actuality
• Existence is in part appearance and in part
  actuality
• The contingent, which ordinary consciousness
  deems actual, falls short of the concept of
  actuality
• It may just as well not exist as exist

11
The Actuality of the Rational

• The actuality of the rational is opposed by those
  who claim that concepts are mere figments of the
  imagination
• It is also opposed by those who elevate concepts
  above actuality
• It is said that actuality is not rational because
  things are not as they ought to be
• But the oughts of ordinary consciousness do not
  concern philosophical concepts, but only their
  superficial surface

12
Empirical Sciences

• Ancient Greek philosophy was aloof and abstract
  from experience
• Modern philosophy (after Luther) turned toward
  experience
• Through the external senses
• Through internal self-consciousness
• Its issue is natural science, which it called
  natural philosophy

13
Shortcomings

• At first, natural science may give satisfaction
  in its own field
• But it falls short in two respects
• It does not embrace the realm of freedom, spirit,
  and God, because they are infinite in content
• It does not yield necessity
• The relations among things are external and
  accidental
• It begins with what is given, not what is
  demonstrated
• Meta-thinking remedies these defects

14
Completion

• Speculative philosophy brings the investigations
  of natural science to completion
• It unifies the highest conceptions of natural
  science under concepts
• It injects the concepts into natural sciences
  picture of the world, thus bringing necessity to
  what natural science relates only accidentally
• Speculative philosophy contains natural science
  while remodeling and expanding it

15
Critical Philosophy

• Kant admonished us not to begin philosophizing
  until we have certified the instruments of
  philosophical cognition
• This is paradoxical, because we must use
  philosophy to examine its credentials
• It does no good to follow Reinhold and proceed
  from hypotheses

16
Dialectical Thinking

• When thought examines itself, it is thrown into
  contradiction
• Its reaction is attempt to overcome the
  oppositions and solve them
• That thought is of its very nature dialectical is
  one of the main lessons in logic
• Yet the reaction has always been to discredit
  thought and to withdraw to claims such as that of
  immediate knowledge

17
Mediation

• To mediate is to begin and to go on to a second
  thing
• The existence of the second thing depends on the
  starting-point
• Knowledge of God begins with experience
• But when it is attained, it remains independent
  by elevating itself above it
• Knowledge of God is immediate when it is
  mediated by thought itself

18
Universality

• There is a danger in purely a priori thought
• It tends to get lost in abstractions
• In ancient philosophy it is formalistic,
  concerned only with the universality of ideas
• The same holds for modern philosophy
• The absolute is the all
• The subject and object are identical
• What moves philosophy along is natural science,
  which supplies concrete content

19
History of Philosophy

• The development of philosophy has always been
  guided by a unitary living mind
• Each system is only a stage in the development of
  the single system of philosophy
• The principle which guides each system is a
  branch of a single whole
• Philosophy at any one point includes and is the
  result of the previous systems
• Systems are more philosophical when they attain
  greater universality

20
Development in Pure Thought

• The historical development of philosophical
  systems is mirrored in the relations of concepts
  in pure thinking
• Freely-developed concepts (Ideas) form a
  universal system which the absolute
• The truth unfolds from within concrete concepts
• It is the unity of these concepts, which
  themselves remain within it as moments

21
System

• Only philosophy in the form of a system is
  scientific
• Otherwise, it is contingent, expressing only
  individual peculiarities of mind
• A system is not defined by an isolated principle
• Instead, it is a universal principle
  comprehending all particular principles

22
A Circle of Circles

• Each part of philosophy is a kind of circle,
  complete within itself
• The Idea is found within the specifics in which
  the principles are formed
• Because it is internally a totality, the circle
  bursts through the limits imposed by its special
  medium
• In this way, it gives rise to a larger circle
• The whole resembles a circle of circles

23
Philosophical Encyclopaedia

• Philosophical encyclopaedia is not a mere
  aggregation of sciences
• It contains a unifying principle of the whole
• Yet it can be broken down into several particular
  sciences
• It has no room for the detailed exposition of
  particulars
• Rather, it presents the beginnings and basic
  concepts of the sciences

24
The Positive Element in Science

• The positive feature in a science is that part
  which is not connected by principles
• Sciences are positive in three ways
• They treat contingencies, which are not
  determined by reason, but by chance
• They take the finite to be self-contained
• They have heterogeneous grounds of cognition,
  inference, feeling, faith, authority, based on
  internal and external intuition

25
Positive Philosophy

• Philosophy based on data from anthropology,
  psychology, and generally on experience is
  positive in form
• But it may contain rational principles and thus
  the universal
• Experimental physics might represent the rational
  science of nature
• History might represent human affairs as guided
  by a rational principle

26
Self-Containment

• Philosophy begins with thought as its immediate
  object
• Since philosophy may not begin with a mere
  assumption, the starting-point must be the final
  result
• In this manner, philosophy exhibits the
  appearance of a circle which closes with itself,
  and has no beginning in the same way of the other
  sciences

27
The Concept of the Concept of Science

• The individual philosopher approaches the Idea
  externally, and this is a kind of beginning
• One begins with a concept of science, which as
  the first implies a separation of subject and
  object
• But the concept of science ultimately unites
  subject and object
• The goal of philosophy is to arrive at the
  concept of its own concept

28
The System

• The system is fully intelligible only when the
  Idea has been comprehended within it
• A preliminary division is into three parts
• Logic the Idea in and for itself
• Philosophy of nature the Idea in its otherness
• Philosophy of mind the Idea returning to itself
  away from its otherness
• The division does not co-ordinate the parts, but
  they develop out of one another

29
The Goal of Philosophy

• The ultimate aim of philosophy is reconcile
  thought and actuality
• Actuality is divided into nature and spirit
• These are brought into unity insofar as they are
  both subordinate to the concept
• Nature and history are discovered to comprise an
  intelligent universe
• Philosophy is thus true theodicy

30
Historical Development

• The development of philosophy is the work of
  spirit, which comes gradually to
  self-consciousness
• Although spirit seems to have lost its way at
  times, it has always been proceeding forward,
  like a mole
• The history of philosophy is the history of the
  essential development of human spirit
• Philosophy is always in step with the other
  activities of human beings

31
End and Means

• The present is the highest stage of philosophy
• The single philosophy that develops is the
  revelation of God
• Older philosophy is only a necessary link on the
  way to the end-point
• It consists of a series of principles which
  refute one another when they advance in the same
  time period

32
Stages of Ancient Philosophy

• Pre-Socratic philosophy started from the present
  world and sought its Idea
• Plato made universal thinking the essence
• Aristotle integrated conceptual thinking with the
  universe as a whole
• The Stoics, Epicureans, and Skeptics turned
  inward, emphasizing the subjective
• The neo-Platonists recognized the Idea as the
  absolute at the expense of subjectivity

33
Modern Philosophy

• Modern Philosophy unites the Idea and the subject
  as self-knowing spirit
• The Idea recognizes that it has been split into
  the knowing thing and the thing known
• First, spirit recognizes an intellectual world of
  its own making
• Then it endeavors to bring that world back into
  actuality, by recognizing infinite essence as
  spirit thinking itself

34
Stages of Modern Philosophy

• Descartes began with consciousness and saw that
  all contact with actuality proceeds through
  consciousness
• Spinoza saw the opposition between consciousness
  and objectivity and made them identical, but only
  externally
• Kant and Fichte saw the subject as for itself but
  had trouble relating it to the other
• The end-point is consciousness finding its
  identity with and difference from the other

35
Intellectual Intuition

• The reconciliation of subject and object is
  supposed to take place through intellectual
  intuition
• But intellectual intuition is not mere immediate
  acquaintance with a transcendent object or merely
  beautiful thoughts
• Instead, intellectual intuition yields knowledge,
  because the apparently external is really internal

36
Restlessness

• What is revealed in intellectual intuition is an
  endless movement or transition
• The Idea is not the presentation of a static
  reality
• Instead, it presents the movement of opposition
  into unity and unity into opposition
• Despite the restless motion of what it contains,
  the Idea is at rest with itself

37
World-Spirit and Absolute Spirit

• It appears that in the present time, the spirit
  of the world has cast off everything objective
  that is different from itself
• It has become absolute and not relative to
  anything else
• Self-consciousness has ceased to be limited and
  has found itself to be unlimited
• This is the end of the process of the development
  of spirit

38
The Procession of Spirits

• Absolute spirit is the knowledge of the Idea
• It is opposed to finite spirit
• But at the same time it is unified with finite
  spirit, which exists as moments in the absolute
• Thus by studying the procession of spirits, we
  come to understand the spirit of the present
  time, which is absolute spirit

39
An Example

• The absolutely simple concept is Being
• Although it comprehends everything, this concept
  is devoid of all differentiating content
• Thus Being passes over to its dialectical
  opposite, Nothing
• But Nothing is equally one-sided
• The two are united in Becoming, in which
  Being and Nothing are moments

40
Phenomenology

• Phenomenology is the study of forms of
  consciousness as they appear and develop
• The appearance and development of these forms is
  not a strict historical sequence
• Instead, phenomenology reveals the logical
  dependence of the forms upon one another
• It begins with the most immediate form and ends
  with a form which comprehends all those that lead
  up to it

41
First Stage Consciousness

• The immediate relation of consciousness to an
  object is sense-certainty
• Consciousness is simple and its object is merely
  what is, a this
• This relation is not adequate for truth because
  there is no universal in the this
• In perception, the object of consciousness is a
  thing with many properties
• But the singularity and universality of the thing
  cannot be united by perception

42
The Understanding

• The final form of consciousness is the
  understanding
• The understanding thinks its objects conceptually
• It distinguishes between the objects appearance
  and its reality in itself as force
• In its attempt to look past the appearance, it
  discovers itself in the in itself
• Consciousness becomes self-consciousness

43
Second Stage Self-Consciousness

• Immediate self-consciousness has as its object as
  the pure undifferentiated I
• Its initial form is that of desire, which seeks
  to do away with the otherness of the object
• To be an I, the object must be a duplicate of
  the consciousness of which it is object
• The otherness of other I is overcome through
  acknowledgement by the other I

44
Mutual Recognition

• In order to be conscious of itself, a
  consciousness A must be acknowledged as a
  consciousness by an other B
• B can acknowledge A only if B is itself a
  self-consciousness, which requires that it be
  acknowledged by A
• Thus, self-consciousness requires mutual
  recognition
• Self-consciousness exists only as mediated

45
Unity in Diversity

• Each consciousness is infinite, in that it
  places no bounds upon itself
• But self-consciousness is mediated by an other
• The problem of self-consciousness is to come
  outside of itself while not losing itself in the
  other
• Mutual recognition, then, is the duplication of
  self-consciousness in its unity

46
The First Double-Movement

• One consciousness is confronted by another
  consciousness
• In confronting the other, consciousness A
  recognizes itself in the other, B, and thus loses
  its independence from B
• A also does away with the independence of B by
  finding itself in B
• The two consciousnesses are at this point
  inter-dependent

47
The Second Double-Movement

• Consciousness A then endeavours to do away with
  the first result and to re-establish itself as
  what is essential in the relation
• To become certain of itself, it tries to do away
  with the other, B
• But since the other is itself, it is thereby
  trying to do away with itself

48
The Third Double-Movement

• By doing away with the other, self-consciousness
  gets itself back
• And by withdrawing itself from the other, it
  frees the other from dependence on it
• This same result is reached from the standpoint
  of the other
• Has something been gained, or is consciousness
  back where it started from?

49
Inequality

• The double-relation of self-consciousness appears
  first as an unequal relation
• Consciousness has a one-sided view of itself as
  simple being-for-itself
• Everything besides itself is viewed as
  inessential
• This is merely the certainty of
  self-consciousness, and not the truth to be
  found only in mutual recognition

50
Life and Death

• To prove itself to be the essential,
  consciousness acknowledges only itself
• It tries to bring about the death of the other
  individual consciousness in order to overcome its
  otherness
• It puts its own life at risk because it too is
  inessential or other to itself
• But success brings about the destruction of
  consciousness itself, so the life-and-death
  struggle fails to yield the required recognition

51
Dependent and Independent

• The outcome is that self-consciousness recognizes
  life as essential to it
• Consciousness does not exist as a simple,
  self-contained unity
• Consciousness exists both for itself and for
  another consciousness as a thing
• As being for itself, it is independent
• As a thing for another consciousness, it is
  dependent

52
Master and Servant

• Consciousness existing for itself, but in
  relation to a dependent consciousness, exists as
  master in the relationship
• The servant acknowledges the master and the
  master is acknowledged by the servant
• The servant stands in a direct relationship to
  things, while the master stands only in an
  indirect relation to things

53
Enjoyment

• The servant cannot destroy the otherness of
  things, but takes away their independence by
  working on them
• The master is then able to enjoy the things which
  embody his will
• Thus he has reached a higher stage than that of
  desire, which bumps up against the independence
  of the other

54
No Satisfaction

• The master is the essential being in the
  relation, the only being-for-itself
• The servant is only being-for-the-master
• The servants doings are essentially those of the
  master
• But the relationship is one-sided
• The master does not attain real recognition
  because of the inferior position of the servant
• He needs to be recognized as an equal

55
Universal Dissolution

• The development of the master has played itself
  out
• The servant is in a position for further
  developmentthrough universal fear
• His world has become totally open, as his master
  can do anything to him
• Absolute fluidity is the essence of
  consciousness

56
The Power of Work

• Although the master enjoys the fruit of the
  servants work, he only confronts the thing as
  negated and as nothing to him
• The servant engages the object in such a way that
  it is preserved and yet transformed
• The consciousness of the servant understands the
  permanent existence of things
• It engages the world rather than abolishing it

57
Advancement

• The working servant overcomes fear of the master
  through his hard work and discipline
• The servant comes to be a being-for-itself
• He recognizes his negative power over the
  things upon which he works
• Absolute fear is required in order to make the
  scope of this power extend over all things
• Mere anxiety would have only limited results

58
Further Phases of Self-Consciousness

• Stoicism finds the experience of freedom in pure
  abstract thinking
• Skepticism doubts the world itself, though it
  cannot escape the practical life
• The unhappy consciousness tries to confront the
  dualities of master and servant, of freedom and
  bondage, of the essential I and the inessential
  world

59
Reason

• The conflict is overcome through idealism
• The world is subject to human reason and the
  human being is free because the otherness of
  the world has been abolished
• Reason attempts to understand the natural world
  through laws
• Its highest calling is to discover in itself the
  laws of morality

60
Spirit

• Reason fails to comprehend the ethical order
  through its abstract laws
• Morality exists only in the realm of spirit
• It is in spirit that consciousness is finally
  united in a moral community
• The earlier forms were mere abstractions
• In spirit there is for the first time
  self-supporting, absolute, real being
  (paragraph 440)

61
Religion

• Religion is the recognition by spirit of its
  absolute being
• The moral community attains its highest form in
  the religious community
• But religious thinking is ultimately merely
  representational

62
Absolute Knowing

• The final phase in the development of
  consciousness is conceptual
• Consciousness comes to know itself through purely
  conceptual thinking
• This thinking is able to comprehend all the
  previous forms, which appeared in time
• It recognizes consciousness as it truly is, which
  embodies all the forms that had been uncovered in
  the phenomenology of spirit

63
Philosophy of History

• Our text is from the Introduction to lecture
  notes from Hegels course Philosophical History
  of the World
• Mostly it is from the second edition, which was
  edited by Hegels son, Karl, with italicized
  interpolations from the third edition
• That edition is a mosaic put together by Karl of
  notations by Hegel for courses beginning in
  1822-23 and ending in 1930-31

64
Three Methods of Writing History

• Hegels purpose was to write philosophical
  history
• He distinguished this from two other modes of
  writing history
• Original history, in which the author writes from
  the standpoint of the spirit of the time in which
  the events unfolded
• Reflective history, in which the author writes
  from the standpoint of a spirit that transcends
  the time in which he is writing

65
Types of Reflective History

• Universal history, which aims to describe the
  entire history of a people or a country, or of
  the world
• Pragmatical history, which aims to use past
  events to convey lessons for the present
• Critical history, which investigates the truth
  and credibility of historical narratives
• Specialized history, which investigates the
  development of areas such as art, law, and
  religion

66
Philosophical History

• Most generally, philosophical history is the
  thoughtful contemplation of history
• Philosophical thought is alleged to produce ideas
  a priori out of speculation
• History is supposed to describe events factually,
  just as they happened
• So it seems that philosophical contemplation of
  history stands in conflict with the essential
  function of history

67
Reason

• The only thought philosophy brings to history is
  that of reason
• Specifically, philosophy claims that reason is
  the law of the world
• All events have come about in conformity to
  rational law
• Philosophy demonstrates that reason must be the
  law of the world

68
Substance and Form

• Reason is the True, the Eternal, the Absolute
  Power
• It manifests itself in the world in two ways
• It is the substance or power of the world, the
  material of the world and that which acts on that
  material
• It is the form of the world, in that whatever
  comes to pass in the world does so only in its
  image and fiat

69
Historical Data

• Philosophical history must not simply impose its
  concepts on its descriptions of the world
• It must be sensitive to the available data and
  not invent them for its own purposes
• At the same time, every historian must interpret
  the data by bringing reason to it
• To him who looks at the world rationally, the
  world looks rationally back

70
Anaxagoras

• In the present, people are comfortable with the
  notion that reason governs the world
• This notion was first put forward by the ancient
  Greek philosopher Anaxagoras
• The intelligence (noûs) which governs the world
  is not finite human intelligence
• It is embodied in universal, unchangeable laws
• But it remained only abstract and not applied

71
Divine Providence

• The religious belief that a divine Providence
  rules the world is consistent with the
  philosophical claim that reason rules it
• But faith in Providence in general is not able to
  explain the occurrence of specific events
• The plan is taken to be hidden from our view,
  and it is presumption to describe it
• Only in specific events do we presume to detect
  the hand of God at work

72
License

• The current philosophical dogma that God is
  unknowable leads to license
• Without knowledge of Gods plan for the world, we
  have license to indulge our own fantasies about
  the course of its history
• But God wishes to be known
• Philosophical history develops intellectually
  what was at first only present to feeling and
  imagination

73
Religious Feeling

• Feeling is the lowest, the animal, form of
  cognition
• The intellectual comprehension of God is
  reflected in feeling, but only inadequately
• Feeling is inherently subjective each is
  entitled to his own
• So basing religious belief on feeling undermines
  its claim to universality

74
Large and Small

• It is common to detect the wisdom of God in
  animals, plants, and individual lives
• It surely must be correct to search for it in the
  large events of history
• The task is the same as was undertaken abstractly
  by Leibniz to understand evil in the world
• Evil is powerless in the face of the overall
  divine plan

75
Nature and Spirit

• The world examined by philosophical history
  consists of both Nature and Spirit
• Spirit alone is the substance of history
• Human nature is universal and comprises the union
  of Nature and Spirit
• The actions of human beings are concrete
• Thus, these actions are the most concrete
  manifestation of Spirit

76
Freedom

• The essence of Spirit is freedom
• All its properties exist only through freedom
• Spirit is self-contained existence, which is just
  what freedom is
• In the existence of Spirit, no reference is made
  to anything else it is self-consciousness
• By contrast, the essence of matter is gravity,
  which is relative

77
Spirit in History

• In self-consciousness, Spirit knows itself
• In history, Spirit strives to attain knowledge of
  its own nature
• Spirit is present at first only as potentiality
• Its end is to produce itself as actuality
• The first trace of Spirit contains within itself
  the whole of history

78
Stages in Freedoms Development

• Asian culture has never known that Spirit is
  free, but only that one (the despot) is free
• The Greeks and Romans understood freedom, but not
  all were free because of the presence of slavery
• Only the Germanic people came to know, through
  Christianity, that all are free
• The initial religious awareness had to work its
  way into secular institutions

79
The Final Aim

• The final aim of historical development is the
  consciousness by Spirit of its own freedom
• Because Spirit is the reality of the world,
  knowledge of its freedom makes it actual
• All the struggles of history have been aimed at
  the actualization of freedom
• God as a perfect being wills only his own will
• So the Idea of freedom is the nature of Gods will

80
Disaster at Every Turn

• The human passions are the springboards of action
• These actions need not respect law, and they
  eventually lead to ruin
• Thus, the contemplation of history saddens us and
  turns us back toward the present
• Why have happiness, wisdom, and virtue been
  sacrificed on the slaughter-bench?

81
Interest

• Purposes and aims are ineffective in themselves
• They require an act of will to become actual
• This occurs when we have an interest in their
  actualization
• Interest can be considered as passion the will
  to act for ones ends
• Nothing great in the world is accomplished
  without passion

82
The Harmonious State

• The state represents common interests
• It functions well when its interests are in
  harmony with the private interests of its
  citizens
• It begins with the simple purpose of securing
  life and property
• It finally attains harmony through self-conscious
  aims which have been worked out through long
  intellectual struggles

83
Freedom and Necessity

• The unarticulated end of the realization of
  freedom is the necessity that guides history
• Until the end is attained, freedom exists only in
  the interests contained in conscious volition
• The necessity of the end is implicit in this
  freedom, and freedom itself is realized through
  necessity
• By analogy, we use natural materials such as
  water to exclude rain

84
Individual Interest and Universal Good

• Acting on the basis of individual interests
  appears to work against morality
• But morality can be understood on a larger basis
  than as what legislates individual action
• Immoral actions can work toward the universal
  good
• Their significance is greater than what pertains
  to the individual

85
Ethical Life

• Individual morality lies in the individuals
  carrying out his specific social role
• To carry out that role is to do ones duty
• It is a perverse attempt to shirk ones duty when
  one claims that morality presents difficulties
  for the individual
• One of the two main factors in history is to
  maintain the ethical life of a people

86
Dissolution

• The second main factor in history is the breakup
  of the state
• The universal which is the ethical life is
  superseded by a higher universal which is the aim
  of reason itself
• World-historical individuals grasp the higher
  universal and act to break up existing states
• Julius Caesar, in fulfilling his ambition to
  rule, set up the new form of the Roman state

87
The Hidden Role of Reason

• World-historical individuals appear to act solely
  in their own individual interests
• But these interests contained within them the end
  of the Spirit of the world
• Although the end itself is not known by these
  individuals, they do understand what their times
  require
• This understanding is what makes people follow
  their lead

88
The Hero

• Generally, the leaders of the world do not have a
  happy end themselves
• Happiness pertains only to the private realm, and
  they are public individuals
• Nor are heroes moral, from the standpoint of the
  ethical norms of society
• But they are better than those who accuse them of
  immorality
• Carrying out their purpose wreaks havoc

89
The Cunning of Reason

• Universal Reason attains its end through the
  passions of the individual
• It is the individual, not Reason, that suffers in
  the process
• This is the cunning of Reason
• Individuals are sacrificed for the universal good
• They are only means to a higher end

90
Ends in Themselves

• Kant had proclaimed that morality requires
  treating people as ends in themselves
• This would seem to conflict with their being used
  as means by Reason
• But it is only by virtue of the divine in the
  individual, i.e., through the very Reason of
  which he is the tool, that he is an end in
  himself
• Only as individuals to they contravene religion
  and morality

91
Ideals

• Many people complain that things are not what
  they ought to be
• Actuality does not live up to their ideals
• But these ideals may be the mere products of
  their imagination
• If people were to recognize the true end of
  things, they would see that the universal law is
  not designed for individuals
• Older people recognize this more clearly

92
The State

• The world-historical individual is the means by
  which the universal end is attained
• The ordinary individual has a more limited end,
  which is the harmony of his own will with the
  moral whole, the State
• One acts freely only insofar as this harmony
  exists
• This is to be distinguished from the negative
  freedom one finds in selfish behavior

93
Characteristics of the State

• The role of the world-historical individual is to
  found States that are new moral orders
• The State is also the basis for art and religion
• The people of the State form a spiritual
  individual
• The people are parts of the State as if members
  of an organic body
• The State is the divine Idea as it exists on
  earth

94
State of Nature

• Some philosophers have postulated a state of
  nature in which people are free
• But people in a naturalistic state without laws
  is a condition in which brute emotions rule
• True freedom is found in the limitation of the
  base instincts of individuals through law and
  morality
• It is the product of thought and not an original
  condition

95
The Will of All

• Subjective freedom is the consent of each
  individual
• If made into a principle, it would allow no State
  action without the consent of all
• In practice, this would require majority rule,
  which tramples on the rights of minorities
• It is also completely impractical
• It runs the risk that any group could claim to be
  the people

96
The Constitution

• Even if the will of the people is taken to be the
  basis of the state, it still must be carried out
  through government
• It seems that the function of commanding and
  obeying is essential to the state
• Yet the relationship between governor and
  governed should be made as equal as possible
• This should be decided by the will of the majority

97
Forms of Government

• The form of government is the outgrowth of the
  spirit of the people at the time
• There are many mixtures of types of government
  monarchy, aristocracy, democracy
• The most true and just form is now thought to be
  the republic
• In practice, government should be monarchy,
  though in a more refined form than despotism or
  military rule

98
Spiritual Union

• The State constitutes the spiritual unity of the
  people
• The spiritual activities of the people, art, law,
  morality, religion, and science, are thus have
  the State as their medium
• Religion is the highest form of spiritual
  activity in feeling
• Art is the pictorial representation of the true
• Philosophy is the highest form of all

99
Religion and the State

• The idea of God as the unity of the universal and
  the particular most closely matches the idea of
  the state
• Secular existence concerns only private interests
• The State is based on religion, for without it,
  the State has no real center
• The religion must be moderate, so as not to
  endanger the state

100
The State and History

• Philosophical history has as its object the
  succession of States
• The State is the embodiment of the national
  spirit
• Through the State we understand the spiritual
  activities of a people
• The gradual attainment of self-consciousness by
  the World Spirit lies in the perfection of the
  State