Hegel : Philosophy of the world history and sprit

today we're talking about hegel's theory of world history and the development of spirit within it for hegel reason rules the world therefore world history is a rational process world history for hegel is the gradual emergence of spirit in the world as freedom as such world history tracks the increasing freedom and self-consciousness of human beings in other words world history is the unfolding of spirit in time so what is spirit well spirit or geist in german is the engine of history it's a sort of principle of activity and motion or as hegel calls it self-consciousness coming to know itself now this might sound very abstract like where is the spirit what is it but for hegel it's really permeating everything in the world it's not some kind of mysterious woo-woo force but rather the truth of movement development activity things are always changing they're always in a process of becoming we can never say with certainty that this thing is what it is and it is fixed that way hegel's trying to get through his notion of spirit at the insight that the world is always in flux in a state of change and this is an interesting point when you think about history because the claim is that history is actually essential for understanding the way things are there's not some sort of permanent fraternal unchanging truth and then history is sort of the predetermined way that that unfolds chronologically no rather the way things are is historical in its very being spirit as this principle of activity that is driving things is also driving them forward to a certain end for hegel history is teleological on his view which is a term that came up in the lecture on kant teleological means aiming towards a certain logical reasonable end and so for hegel things are always in a state of progress to put it simply spirit is driving towards freedom so hegel describes freedom as the truth of spirit and says that when we talk about world history as spirit actualizing itself in concrete events throughout history through individual people's desires what we're actually saying is that spirit is becoming more and more concrete and this means that things are becoming freer they're unifying becoming more self-conscious and when we are self-conscious we are able to rule ourselves govern ourselves and that is the truth of freedom for hegel the goal towards which spirit is driving is thus innocence freedom but specifically speaking hegel really talks about it as the idea which is another notion that comes up a lot in hegel's work the idea for hegel is the synthesis of subjectivity and objectivity synthesis of matter and spirit synthesis of really all these things that seem disparate and separate and the idea actually needs human activity in order to help bring it about it's not something sort of hovering up in the ether that needs to um you know enter human history in some way no it is actually imminent within human history and it needs human activity in order to self-actualize so humans have an essential role in the self-development of spirit as it strives for its goal which is the idea the goal of world history is the fulfillment of the concept of spirit spirit is conscious of its own freedom and it has actualized freedom completely and that is also what hakeel calls the idea so one thing you'll find is that it's easy to get sort of caught up in these different terms but hegel is really just trying to get at this notion that history is in a state of development and that this state of development is imminent within the conditions of the world it doesn't need sort of something outside of it for hegel the means are always internal to the end on page 26 hegel says that the idea and human passion are the two elements of world history and they come together concretely in the freedom that we receive through living within a state the idea as we said earlier is the synthesis of subjectivity and objectivity it's the totality of all things but its antithesis is passion passion is arbitrary free or subjective will say of an individual person and passion hegel says even though it's antithetical to the idea has a role to play in the actualization of reason it provides a sort of driving force in what hegel calls the cunning of reason so think about the way that as a person you have individual interests you have individual desires you have individual goals and those might seem to be unique to you right hegel says well in trying to attain those desires you are actually unwittingly doing the work of reason you are helping actualize spirit in the world even though you don't know it and even if you're not doing good actions our actions hegel says have meaning outside of our intentions and even outside of the specific actions we undertake so he gives the example for instance of an arsonist who lights a house on fire in order to get revenge say it's the house of his enemy but then accidentally ends up lighting an entire neighborhood on fire and destroying a lot of property and even killing people on the way hegel says that person's actions had all sorts of consequences that that person didn't intend and this is where hegel's seeming optimism starts to get a little dark because he talks about for instance the slaughter bench of history reason uses human passions in order to attain its own end and in so doing a lot of individual humans end up not attaining their goals or end up being destructive or even being destroyed in this picture that hegel gives of individuals being the unwitting instruments of reason he focuses on a particular type of person whom he calls the world historical individual or the hero the world historical individual is a person whose aims embody a universal concept they contain the will of the world spirit so there are plenty of people whose particular passions even though they're still part of this teleological progress of history aren't particularly useful for reason so for instance if my particular passion is to create a small business in my community maybe it's a used car dealership then you know in achieving that i'm still part of the progress of history according to hegel but i have a somewhat localized effect there are others however whose effects go far beyond what they even could have anticipated perhaps it's somebody who starts a movement or somebody who lives a kind of quiet life while they're alive but then afterward becomes venerated as a hero and ends up embodying a value that then culture really takes to and furthers for centuries to come a lot of religious figures are like this hegel says that for these individuals the source of their actions comes from inner spirit it's actually hidden to them themselves so world historical individuals may or may not believe that they have an important mission to accomplish and it doesn't really matter whether they do or not for hegel because at the end of the day they are bringing the idea into consciousness out of themselves even when they're not aware of it let's say something now about the state for hegel the state is the object of world history and what he means by the state is actually pretty broad so he's not just talking about government here although that's part of it he's also talking about all dimensions of cultural life right arts religion philosophy education in addition he talks about ethical life and ethical life doesn't strictly mean here our moral actions it actually just means our norms our ways of living our customs right it's kite in german and it also pertains to our environment so the state for hegel actually even extends to our climate our geography and which countries surround us as our neighbors and finally it pertains to something we'll talk about a little bit next time which is the folks geist or the spirit of a people geist spirit folk people for hegel the state is freedom that is actually rationally self-conscious and one thing that's important here is hegel's claim that only within the state can freedom be actualized so this in contrast say with a pretty common conception of freedom that we have which is that in the state of nature humans are completely free but we're also pretty violent you know and infringing on each other's desires all the time and so what we need to do is to enter a state enter a society where our freedoms are constrained so i can retain certain freedoms but i can't say retain the freedom to kill another person that notion wherein the state is what constrains your freedom but freedom is something you have naturally because it's just the freedom to follow your desires is very different from what hegel has in mind hegel says no freedom requires self-consciousness and it requires recognition within a community so it's actually only through the state which includes all of those things i mentioned a little bit ago not just government but also cultural life and ethical life and so on and so forth only there do i actually have the freedom that hegel is talking about and in a perfect world he says on page 27 the state's universal goal is in line in union with the private interest of citizens of course doesn't often work out that way for hegel the state is the practical and lived union of the universal and the particular and what holds people together in the state is reason so this is what makes the state different say from the family structure hegel says that the family structure is based on blood ties or kinship ties right whereas the state is based on ties of reason which are universal and if this all still sounds pretty abstract think about the fact that we encounter reason through the state in a literal physical sense right by encountering laws for instance or say i'm going to a national park to go climbing and i have to stop at a kiosk and pay my way in right that's a way of me encountering the state i'm saying okay i'll pay 20 in order to support the upkeep of the park so i can go climbing here and keep it accessible for everybody or when i'm driving down the highway driving down the highway is a great example of the state structure and the fact that it enables freedom for me because it allows me to get from point a to point b much more quickly than if we didn't have the infrastructure providing for that you can also see the state structure embodied in individuals who do service for the state say a judge looking forward to talking to you about hegel this week