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Hegel: Lectures on the Philosophy of World History, Volume I: Manuscripts of the Introduction and the Lectures of 1822-1823
This edition makes available an entirely new version of Hegel's lectures on the development and scope of world history. Volume I presents Hegel's surviving manuscripts of his introduction to the lectures and the full transcription of the first series of lectures (1822-23). These works treat the core of human history as the inexorable advance towards the establishment of a political state with just institutions-a state that consists of individuals with a free and fully-developed self-consciousness. Hegel interweaves major themes of spirit and culture-including social life, political systems, commerce, art and architecture, religion, and philosophy-with an historical account of peoples, dates, and events. Following spirit's quest for self-realization, the lectures presented here offer an imaginative voyage around the world, from the paternalistic, static realm of China to the cultural traditions of India; the vast but flawed political organization of the Persian Empire to Egypt and
then the Orient; and the birth of freedom in the West to the Christian revelation of free political institutions emerging in the medieval and modern Germanic world.
Brown and Hodgson's new translation is an essential resource for the English reader, and provides a fascinating account of the world as it was conceived by one of history's most influential philosophers. The Editorial Introduction surveys the history of the texts and provides an analytic summary of them, and editorial footnotes introduce readers to Hegel's many sources and allusions. For the first time an edition is made available that permits critical scholarly study, and translates to the needs of the general reader.
then the Orient; and the birth of freedom in the West to the Christian revelation of free political institutions emerging in the medieval and modern Germanic world.
Brown and Hodgson's new translation is an essential resource for the English reader, and provides a fascinating account of the world as it was conceived by one of history's most influential philosophers. The Editorial Introduction surveys the history of the texts and provides an analytic summary of them, and editorial footnotes introduce readers to Hegel's many sources and allusions. For the first time an edition is made available that permits critical scholarly study, and translates to the needs of the general reader.
- GenresPhilosophy
576 pages, Hardcover
First published June 4, 2011
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May 15, 2024
Eh. Not a great look for good ole Georgie.
Here are some notes:
Hegel begins his introduction with the statement that history is guided by a rational logic and reason that govern the world. For Hegel, world history is the rational and necessary course of world spirit. However, Hegel’s recognition of history’s rationality is not, for him, equivalent with religious faith in providence. For Hegel, faith is indeterminate and lacks an application to the whole. The individuals world history is concerned with, for Hegel, are people, totalities, and states.
The consideration of world history as a “rich production of creative reason” that becomes comprehended is, in Hegel’s own words, a theodicy (85). Indeed, the definition of reason itself amounts to asking what the end of the world is. This world history is the illustration of spirit laboring to arrive at knowledge of what it is intrinsically. For instance, world history is the unfolding of the ideal of freedom unto history itself. This is a progress “whose necessity we have to recognize” (88). However, the necessity of recognizing world history’s unfolding application of freedom is not, for Hegel, to revel in the untold suffering of the masses. “We can all the more,” says Hegel, “end up with moral sorrow and with the good spirit (if such is in us) repulsed by such a spectacle” (90).
Nevertheless, for Hegel there are certain means through spirit is actualized in the world. One shape that spirit assumes in actuality is the state. The state is the material actualization of spirit. Whereas “the living power of the state” is what Hegel designates as ethical life, the state is the actualization of freedom. This does not mean that empirical existences of the state conform to its concept as freedom. Rather, Hegel contends that state represent the material and informal means that others wrongly overlook in the name of abstraction and formalism.
Unlike changes in nature that exhibit a pattern of eternal return, Hegel argues that the phenomenon of the spiritual, as it is seen in humans, exemplifies the capacity for actualized changed. The drive of spirit indicates ‘something that ought to be actual,’ a potential of and for freedom. This drive burst through itself via confronting and then sublating that which it opposes into itself. Such change routinely constitutes an imperfect present that itself bespeaks possibility of reason and its unfolding. In order to understand this course of history, one must have a thorough capacity for abstraction and a familiarity with ideas. World history does not move on the plane of private conviction and piety, but on the plane of ethical and political life which establishes formal culture, sciences, poetry, and are more generally.
Here are some notes:
Hegel begins his introduction with the statement that history is guided by a rational logic and reason that govern the world. For Hegel, world history is the rational and necessary course of world spirit. However, Hegel’s recognition of history’s rationality is not, for him, equivalent with religious faith in providence. For Hegel, faith is indeterminate and lacks an application to the whole. The individuals world history is concerned with, for Hegel, are people, totalities, and states.
The consideration of world history as a “rich production of creative reason” that becomes comprehended is, in Hegel’s own words, a theodicy (85). Indeed, the definition of reason itself amounts to asking what the end of the world is. This world history is the illustration of spirit laboring to arrive at knowledge of what it is intrinsically. For instance, world history is the unfolding of the ideal of freedom unto history itself. This is a progress “whose necessity we have to recognize” (88). However, the necessity of recognizing world history’s unfolding application of freedom is not, for Hegel, to revel in the untold suffering of the masses. “We can all the more,” says Hegel, “end up with moral sorrow and with the good spirit (if such is in us) repulsed by such a spectacle” (90).
Nevertheless, for Hegel there are certain means through spirit is actualized in the world. One shape that spirit assumes in actuality is the state. The state is the material actualization of spirit. Whereas “the living power of the state” is what Hegel designates as ethical life, the state is the actualization of freedom. This does not mean that empirical existences of the state conform to its concept as freedom. Rather, Hegel contends that state represent the material and informal means that others wrongly overlook in the name of abstraction and formalism.
Unlike changes in nature that exhibit a pattern of eternal return, Hegel argues that the phenomenon of the spiritual, as it is seen in humans, exemplifies the capacity for actualized changed. The drive of spirit indicates ‘something that ought to be actual,’ a potential of and for freedom. This drive burst through itself via confronting and then sublating that which it opposes into itself. Such change routinely constitutes an imperfect present that itself bespeaks possibility of reason and its unfolding. In order to understand this course of history, one must have a thorough capacity for abstraction and a familiarity with ideas. World history does not move on the plane of private conviction and piety, but on the plane of ethical and political life which establishes formal culture, sciences, poetry, and are more generally.
Displaying 1 of 1 review