September 3, 2025 • 29 mins
Dive into Hegels enlightening lectures on the philosophy of world history, crafted to ease students into his complex ideas. Hegels engaging discourse sheds light on accessible themes like world events while he intricately defines and explores the concept of Geist, or spirit. This notion reflects the evolving culture of humanity, continuously adapting to societal changes while simultaneously driving those transformations through what Hegel termed the cunning of reason. A significant focus of the text is on world history rather than confined regional narratives. Influenced by the enigmatic writings of Jakob Bhme and captivated by the thoughts of Spinoza, Kant, Rousseau, and Goethe, Hegel examined the contradictions of modern philosophy and society. He sought to interpret these tensions‚like those between knowledge and faith, freedom and authority‚as part of a comprehensive, evolving rational unity he called the absolute idea or absolute knowledge. This unity emerges through contradiction and negation, leading to an uplifting resolution that preserves these conflicts as integral phases of development. Ultimately, Hegel posits that this rational, self-conscious whole is realized through individual minds, culminating in a collective understanding of this intricate developmental process. (summary by Wikipedia and D.E. Wittkower)
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The course of the world's history sub section two. This
is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
LibriVox dot org. Introduction two The Philosophy of History by
(00:24):
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel on the course of the World's
history sub Section two. Universal history, as already demonstrated, shows
the development of the consciousness of freedom on the part
(00:45):
of spirit, and of the consequent realization of that freedom.
This development implies a gradation a series of increasingly adequate
expressions or manifestations of freedom, which result from its idea,
the logical and as still more prominent, the dialectical nature
(01:08):
of the idea in general, namely that it is self determined,
that it assumes successive forms which it successively transcends, and
by this very process of transcending its earlier stages, gains
an affirmative and in fact a richer and more concrete shape.
This necessity of its nature and the necessary series of
(01:31):
pure abstract forms which the idea successively assumes, is exhibited
in the department of logic. Here we need adopt only
one of its results, namely that every step in the process,
as differing from any other, has its determinate peculiar principle.
(01:54):
In history, this principle is idiosyncrasy of spirit peculiar national genius.
It is within the limitations of this idiosyncrasy that the
spirit of the nation concretely manifested expresses every aspect of
its consciousness and will. The whole cycle of its realization,
(02:17):
Its religion, its polity, its ethics, its legislation, and even
its science, art, and mechanical skill all bear its stamp.
These special peculiarities find their key in that common peculiarity,
the particular principle that characterizes a people. As on the
(02:40):
other hand, in the facts which history presents in detail,
that most common characteristic principle may be detected. That such
or such a specific quality constitutes the peculiar genius of
a people is the element of our inquiry, which must
be derived from experience and historically proved. To accomplish this
(03:05):
presupposes not only a disciplined faculty of abstraction, but an
intimate acquaintance with the idea. The investigator must be familiar
a priori, if we like to call it so, with
the whole circle of conceptions to which the principles in
question belong. Just as Kepler, to name the most illustrious
(03:26):
example in this mode of philosophizing, must have been familiar
a priori with ellipses, with cubes and squares, and with
ideas of their relations, before he could discover from the
empirical data those immortal laws of his which are none
other than forms of thought pertaining to those classes of conceptions.
(03:51):
He who is unfamiliar with the science that embraces these abstract,
elementary conceptions, is as little capable, though he may have
gazed on the firmament the motions of the celestial bodies
for a lifetime, of understanding those laws, as of discovering them.
From this want of acquaintance with the ideas that relate
(04:12):
to the development of freedom proceed a part of those
objections which are brought against the philosophical consideration of a
science usually regarded as one of mere experience, the so
called a priori method and the attempt to insinuate ideas
into the empirical data of history being the chief points
(04:32):
in the indictment. Where this deficiency exists, such conceptions appear alien,
not lying within the object of investigation to minds whose
training has been narrow and merely subjective, which have not
an acquaintance and familiarity with ideas. They are something strange,
(04:56):
not embraced in the notion and conception of the subject,
which there are limited intellect forms. Hence, the statement that
philosophy does not understand such sciences, it must indeed allow
that it has not that kind of understanding which is
the prevailing one in the domain of those sciences, that
(05:17):
it does not proceed according to the categories of such understanding,
but according to the categories of reason, though at the
same time recognizing that understanding and its true value and position.
It must be observed that in this very process of
(05:38):
scientific understanding, it is of importance that the essential should
be distinguished and brought into relief in contrast with the
so called non essential. But in order to render this possible,
we must know what is essential, and that is, in
view of the history of the world in general, the
(06:00):
consciousness of freedom and the phases which this consciousness assumes
in developing itself. The bearing of historical facts on this
category is their bearing on the truly essential of the
difficulty stated and the opposition exhibited to comprehensive conceptions and
science part must be referred to the inability to grasp
(06:22):
and to understand ideas. If in natural history some monstrous
hybrid growth is alleged as an objection to the recognition
of clear and indubitable classes or species, a sufficient reply
is furnished by a sentiment, often vaguely urged that the
(06:43):
exception confirms the rule, that is the part of a
well defined rule, to show the conditions in which it applies,
or the deficiency or hybridism of cases that are abnormal.
Mere nature uture is too weak to keep its genera
and species pure when conflicting with alien elementary influences. If,
(07:11):
for example, on considering the human organization in its concrete aspect,
we assert that brain, heart, and so forth are essential
to its organic life, some miserable abortion may be adduced
which has on the whole the human form or parts
of it, which has been conceived in a human body
(07:34):
and has breathed after birth, therefrom in which nevertheless no
brain and no heart is found. If such an instance
is quoted against the general conception of a human being,
the objector persisting in using the name coupled with a
superficial idea. Respecting it, it can be proved that a real,
(07:57):
concrete human being is a truly object, that such a
being must have a brain in its head and a
heart in its breast. A similar process of reasoning is
adopted in reference to the correct assertion that genius, talent,
moral virtues, and sentiments and piety may be found in
(08:21):
every zone under all political constitutions and conditions, in confirmation
of which examples are forthcoming in abundance. If in this
assertion the accompanying distinctions are intended to be repudiated as
unimportant or non essential, reflection evidently limits itself to abstract
(08:42):
categories and ignores the specialities of the object in question,
which certainly fall under no principle recognized by such categories.
That intellectual position which adopts such merely formal points of
view presents a vast field for in genious questions, erudite views,
(09:02):
and striking comparisons for profound, seeming reflections and declamations, which
may be rendered so much the more brilliant in proportion
as the subject they refer to as indefinite, and are
susceptible of new and varied forms. In inverse proportion to
the importance of the results that can be gained from
them and the certainty and rationality of their issues. Under
(09:27):
such an aspect, the well known Indian epopies may be
compared with the Homeric, perhaps since it is the vastness
of the imagination by which poetical genius proves itself preferred
to them. As on account of the similarity of single
strokes of imagination in the attributes of the divinities, it
(09:51):
has been contended that Greek mythological forms may be recognized
in those of India. Similarly, the Chinese philosophy, as adopting
the one as its basis, has been alleged to be
the same as at a later period appeared as Eliatic
philosophy and as the Spinotzistic system. While in virtue of
(10:15):
its expressing itself also in abstract numbers and lines, Pythagorean
and Christian principles have been supposed to be detected in it.
Instances of bravery and indomitable courage, traits of magnanimity, of
self denial and self sacrifice, which are found among the
(10:37):
most savage and the most pusillanimous nations, are regarded as
sufficient to support the view that in these nations as
much of social virtue and morality may be found as
in the most civilized Christian states, or even more. And
on this ground a doubt has been suggested whether, in
(10:57):
the progress of history and of general culture, mankind have
become better, whether their morality has been increased. Morality being
regarded in a subject of aspect and view, as founded
on what the agent holds to be right and wrong,
good and evil, not on a principle which is considered
(11:19):
to be in and for itself right and good, or
a crime and evil, or on a particular religion believed
to be the true one. We may fairly decline on
this occasion the task of tracing the formalism and error
of such a view, and establishing the true principles of morality,
(11:43):
or rather of social virtue, in opposition to false morality.
For the history of the world occupies a higher ground
than that on which morality has properly its position, which
is personal character, the conscience of individuals, their particular will
and mode of action. These have a value imputation, reward
(12:07):
or punishment proper to themselves. But the absolute aim of
spirit requires and accomplishes what providence does transcends the obligation
and the liability to imputation, and the ascription of good
or bad motives which attached to individuality in virtue of
(12:28):
its social relations. They who, on moral grounds and consequently
with noble intention, have resisted that which the advance of
the spiritual idea makes necessary, stand higher in moral worth
than those whose crimes have been turned into the means
(12:50):
under the direction of a superior principle of realizing the
purposes of that principle. But in such revolutions both parties
generally stand within the limits of the same circle of
transient and corruptible existence. Consequently, it is only a formal rectitude,
(13:11):
deserted by the living spirit and by God, which those
who stand upon ancient rite and order maintain. The deeds
of great men, who are the individuals of the world's history,
thus appear not only justified in view of that intrinsic
result of which they were not conscious, but also from
(13:35):
the point of view occupied by the secular moralist. But
looked at from this point, moral claims that are irrelevant
must not be brought into collision with world historical deeds
and their accomplishment. The litany of private virtues modesty, humility, philanthropy,
(13:58):
and forbearance must not be raised against them. The history
of the world might, on principle, entirely ignore the circle
within which morality and the so much talked of distinction
between the moral and the politic lies, not only in
(14:18):
abstaining from judgments for the principles involved, and the necessary
reference of the deeds in question to those principles are
a sufficient judge of them, but in leaving individuals quite
out of view and unmentioned. What it has to record
is the activity of the spirit of peoples, so that
(14:40):
the individual forms which that spirit has assumed in the
sphere of outward reality might be left to the delineation
of special histories. The same kind of formalism avails itself
in its peculiar manner of the indefiniteness attaching to genius, poetry,
(15:02):
and even philosophy. Thinks equally that it finds these everywhere.
We have here products of reflective thought, and it is
familiarity with those general conceptions which single out and name
real distinctions without fathoming the true depth of the matter
that we call culture. It is something merely formal inasmuch
(15:27):
as it aims at nothing more than the analysis of
the subject, whatever it be, into its constituent parts, and
the comprehension of these in their logical definitions and forms.
It is not the free universality of conception necessary for
making an abstract principle the object of consciousness. Such a
(15:50):
consciousness of thought itself and of its forms, isolated from
a particular object is philosophy. This has, indeed the condition
of its existence in culture, that condition being the taking
up of the object of thought and at the same
time clothing it with the form of universality in such
(16:13):
a way that the material content and the form given
by the intellect are held in an inseparable state, inseparable
to such a degree that the object in question, which,
by the analysis of one conception into a multitude of
conceptions is enlarged to an incalculable treasure of thought, is
(16:37):
regarded as a merely empirical datum in whose formation thought
has had no share. But it is quite as much
an act of thought of the understanding, in particular, to
embrace in one simple conception an object which of itself
(16:58):
comprehends a concrete and large significance as earth man Alexander
or Caesar, and to designate it by one word as
to resolve such a conception, duly to isolate an idea
the conceptions which it contains, and to give them particular names,
(17:23):
and in reference to the view which gave occasion to
what has just been said. Thus much will be clear
that as reflection produces what we include under the general
terms genius, talent, art, science, formal culture, on every grade
of intellectual development not only can but must grow and
(17:44):
attain a mature bloom. While the grade in question is
developing itself to a state, and on this basis of
civilization is advancing to intelligent reflection and to general forms
of thought, as in laws. So in regard to all else,
(18:06):
in the very association of men in a state lies
the necessity of formal culture, consequently, of the rise of
the sciences, and of a cultivated poetry and art. Generally,
the arts designated plastic require, besides, even in their technical aspect,
the civilized association of men, the poetic art, which has
(18:32):
less need of external requirements and means, and which has
the element of immediate existence. The voice as its material,
steps forth with great boldness and with matured expression, even
under the conditions presented by a people not yet united
in a political combination. Since as remarked above, language attains,
(18:56):
on its own particular ground a high in intellectual development
prior to the commencement of civilization, philosophy also must make
its appearance where political life exists, since that in virtue
of which any series of phenomena is reduced within the
sphere of culture, as above stated, is the form strictly
(19:20):
proper to thought, and thus for philosophy, which is nothing
other than the consciousness of this form itself, the thinking
of thinking, the material of which its edifice is to
be constructed, is already prepared by general culture. If in
(19:41):
the development of the state itself, periods are necessitated which
impel the soul of nobler natures to seek refuge from
the present in ideal regions in order to find in
them that harmony with itself which it can no longer
enjoy in the discordant real world, where the reflective intelligence
(20:02):
attacks all that is wholly and deep which had been
spontaneously inwrought into the religion, laws, and manners of nations,
and brings them down and attenuates them to abstract, godless generalities.
Thought will be compelled to become thinking reason, with the
view of effecting in its own element the restoration of
(20:24):
its principles from the ruin to which they had been brought.
We find, then it is true among all world historical peoples, poetry,
plastic art, science, even philosophy. But not only is there
a diversity in style and bearing generally, but still more
(20:47):
remarkably in subject matter. And this is a diversity of
the most important kind, affecting the rationality of that subject matter.
It is useless for a pretentious esthetic criticism to demand
that our good pleasure should not be made the rule
for the matter the substantial part of their contents, and
(21:10):
to maintain that it is the beautiful form as such,
the grandeur of the fancy and so forth, which fine
art aims at, and which must be considered and enjoyed
by a liberal taste and cultivated mind. A healthy intellect
does not tolerate such abstractions, and cannot assimilate productions of
(21:35):
the kind above referred to. Granted that the Indian Epopeis
might be placed on a level with the Homeric on
account of a number of those qualities of form, grandeur,
of invention, and imaginative power, liveliness of images and emotions,
and beauty of diction. Yet the infinite difference of matter
(21:57):
remains consequently one of substantial importance in involving the interest
of reason, which is immediately concerned with the consciousness of
the idea of freedom and its expression in individuals. There
is not only a classical form, but a classical order
of subject matter, and in a work of art, form
(22:22):
and subject matter are so closely united that the former
can only be classical to the extent to which the
latter is so. With a fantastical, indeterminate material and rule
is the essence of reason, the form becomes measureless and formless,
(22:42):
or mean and contracted in the same way. In that
comparison of the various systems of philosophy of which we
have already spoken, the only point of importance is overlooked, namely,
the character of that unity, which is found alike in
the Chinese, the Eliatic, and the Schpinotzistic philosophy. The distinction
(23:05):
between the recognition of that unity as abstract and as concrete,
concrete to the extent of being a unity in and
by itself, a unity synonymous with spirit, but that coordination
proves that it recognizes only such an abstract unity, so
(23:29):
that while it gives judgment respecting philosophy, it is ignorant
of that very point which constitutes the interest of philosophy.
But there are also spheres which, amid all the variety
that is presented in the substantial content of a particular
form of culture, remain the same. The difference above mentioned
(23:56):
in art science philosophy concerns the thinking, reason and freedom,
which is the self consciousness of the former, and which
has the same one root with thought, As it is
not the brute, but only the man that thinks. He
only and only because he is a thinking thing, has freedom.
(24:21):
His consciousness imports this that the individual comprehends itself as
a person, that is, recognizes itself in its single existence,
as possessing universality, as capable of abstraction from and of
surrendering all speciality, and therefore as inherently infinite. Consequently, those
(24:49):
spheres of intelligence which lie beyond the limits of this
consciousness are a common ground among those substantial distinctions. Even morality,
which is so intimately connected with the consciousness of freedom,
can be very pure while that consciousness is still wanting
as far, that is to say, as it expresses duties
(25:12):
and writes only as objective commands, or even as far
as it remains satisfied with the merely formal elevation of
the soul, the surrender of the sensual and of all
sensual motives in a purely negative, self denying fashion. The
(25:33):
Chinese morality, since Europeans have become acquainted with it and
with the writings of Confucius, has obtained the greatest praise
and proportionate attention from those who are familiar with Christian morality.
There is a similar acknowledgment of the sublimity with which
the Indian religion and poetry, a statement that must, however,
(25:56):
be limited to the higher kind, but especially the Indian
philosophy expatiate upon and demand the removal and sacrifice of sensuality.
Yet both these nations are, it must be confessed, entirely
wanting in the essential consciousness of the idea of freedom.
(26:20):
To the Chinese, their moral laws are just like natural laws,
external positive commands, claims established by force, compulsory duties or
rules of courtesy towards each other, freedom through which alone
the essential determinations of reason become moral sentiments is wanting.
(26:44):
Morality is a political affair, and its laws are administered
by officers of government and legal tribunals their treatises upon it,
which are not law books, but are certainly addressed to
the subject of wills and individual disposition. Read as do
(27:04):
the moral writings of the Stoics, like a string of
commands stated as necessary for realizing the goal of happiness,
so that it seems to be left free to men
on their part to adopt such commands, to observe them
or not. While the conception of an abstract subject a
(27:25):
wise man forms the culminating point among the Chinese, as
also among the Stoic moralists. Also in the Indian doctrine
of the renunciation of the sensuality of desires and earthly interests.
Positive moral freedom is not the object and end, but
(27:45):
the annihilation of consciousness, spiritual and even physical privation of life.
It is the concrete spirit of a people, which we
have distinctly to recognize, and since it is spirit, it
can only be comprehended spiritually, that is, by thought. It
(28:08):
is this alone which takes the lead in all the
deeds and tendencies of that people, and which is occupied
in realizing itself, in satisfying its ideal, and becoming self conscious.
For its great business is self production. But for spirit,
the highest attainment is self knowledge, an advance not only
(28:32):
to the intuition, but to the thought, the clear conception
of itself. This it must and is also destined to accomplish.
But the accomplishment is at the same time its dissolution
and the rise of another spirit, another world, historical people,
(28:56):
another epoch of universal history. This transition and connection leads
us to the connection of the whole, the idea of
the world's history as such, which we have now to
consider more closely, and of which we have to give
a representation end the course of the world's history sub
(29:26):
Section two. This recording is in the public domain.
The course of the world's history sub section two. This
is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
LibriVox dot org. Introduction two The Philosophy of History by
(00:24):
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel on the course of the World's
history sub Section two. Universal history, as already demonstrated, shows
the development of the consciousness of freedom on the part
(00:45):
of spirit, and of the consequent realization of that freedom.
This development implies a gradation a series of increasingly adequate
expressions or manifestations of freedom, which result from its idea,
the logical and as still more prominent, the dialectical nature
(01:08):
of the idea in general, namely that it is self determined,
that it assumes successive forms which it successively transcends, and
by this very process of transcending its earlier stages, gains
an affirmative and in fact a richer and more concrete shape.
This necessity of its nature and the necessary series of
(01:31):
pure abstract forms which the idea successively assumes, is exhibited
in the department of logic. Here we need adopt only
one of its results, namely that every step in the process,
as differing from any other, has its determinate peculiar principle.
(01:54):
In history, this principle is idiosyncrasy of spirit peculiar national genius.
It is within the limitations of this idiosyncrasy that the
spirit of the nation concretely manifested expresses every aspect of
its consciousness and will. The whole cycle of its realization,
(02:17):
Its religion, its polity, its ethics, its legislation, and even
its science, art, and mechanical skill all bear its stamp.
These special peculiarities find their key in that common peculiarity,
the particular principle that characterizes a people. As on the
(02:40):
other hand, in the facts which history presents in detail,
that most common characteristic principle may be detected. That such
or such a specific quality constitutes the peculiar genius of
a people is the element of our inquiry, which must
be derived from experience and historically proved. To accomplish this
(03:05):
presupposes not only a disciplined faculty of abstraction, but an
intimate acquaintance with the idea. The investigator must be familiar
a priori, if we like to call it so, with
the whole circle of conceptions to which the principles in
question belong. Just as Kepler, to name the most illustrious
(03:26):
example in this mode of philosophizing, must have been familiar
a priori with ellipses, with cubes and squares, and with
ideas of their relations, before he could discover from the
empirical data those immortal laws of his which are none
other than forms of thought pertaining to those classes of conceptions.
(03:51):
He who is unfamiliar with the science that embraces these abstract,
elementary conceptions, is as little capable, though he may have
gazed on the firmament the motions of the celestial bodies
for a lifetime, of understanding those laws, as of discovering them.
From this want of acquaintance with the ideas that relate
(04:12):
to the development of freedom proceed a part of those
objections which are brought against the philosophical consideration of a
science usually regarded as one of mere experience, the so
called a priori method and the attempt to insinuate ideas
into the empirical data of history being the chief points
(04:32):
in the indictment. Where this deficiency exists, such conceptions appear alien,
not lying within the object of investigation to minds whose
training has been narrow and merely subjective, which have not
an acquaintance and familiarity with ideas. They are something strange,
(04:56):
not embraced in the notion and conception of the subject,
which there are limited intellect forms. Hence, the statement that
philosophy does not understand such sciences, it must indeed allow
that it has not that kind of understanding which is
the prevailing one in the domain of those sciences, that
(05:17):
it does not proceed according to the categories of such understanding,
but according to the categories of reason, though at the
same time recognizing that understanding and its true value and position.
It must be observed that in this very process of
(05:38):
scientific understanding, it is of importance that the essential should
be distinguished and brought into relief in contrast with the
so called non essential. But in order to render this possible,
we must know what is essential, and that is, in
view of the history of the world in general, the
(06:00):
consciousness of freedom and the phases which this consciousness assumes
in developing itself. The bearing of historical facts on this
category is their bearing on the truly essential of the
difficulty stated and the opposition exhibited to comprehensive conceptions and
science part must be referred to the inability to grasp
(06:22):
and to understand ideas. If in natural history some monstrous
hybrid growth is alleged as an objection to the recognition
of clear and indubitable classes or species, a sufficient reply
is furnished by a sentiment, often vaguely urged that the
(06:43):
exception confirms the rule, that is the part of a
well defined rule, to show the conditions in which it applies,
or the deficiency or hybridism of cases that are abnormal.
Mere nature uture is too weak to keep its genera
and species pure when conflicting with alien elementary influences. If,
(07:11):
for example, on considering the human organization in its concrete aspect,
we assert that brain, heart, and so forth are essential
to its organic life, some miserable abortion may be adduced
which has on the whole the human form or parts
of it, which has been conceived in a human body
(07:34):
and has breathed after birth, therefrom in which nevertheless no
brain and no heart is found. If such an instance
is quoted against the general conception of a human being,
the objector persisting in using the name coupled with a
superficial idea. Respecting it, it can be proved that a real,
(07:57):
concrete human being is a truly object, that such a
being must have a brain in its head and a
heart in its breast. A similar process of reasoning is
adopted in reference to the correct assertion that genius, talent,
moral virtues, and sentiments and piety may be found in
(08:21):
every zone under all political constitutions and conditions, in confirmation
of which examples are forthcoming in abundance. If in this
assertion the accompanying distinctions are intended to be repudiated as
unimportant or non essential, reflection evidently limits itself to abstract
(08:42):
categories and ignores the specialities of the object in question,
which certainly fall under no principle recognized by such categories.
That intellectual position which adopts such merely formal points of
view presents a vast field for in genious questions, erudite views,
(09:02):
and striking comparisons for profound, seeming reflections and declamations, which
may be rendered so much the more brilliant in proportion
as the subject they refer to as indefinite, and are
susceptible of new and varied forms. In inverse proportion to
the importance of the results that can be gained from
them and the certainty and rationality of their issues. Under
(09:27):
such an aspect, the well known Indian epopies may be
compared with the Homeric, perhaps since it is the vastness
of the imagination by which poetical genius proves itself preferred
to them. As on account of the similarity of single
strokes of imagination in the attributes of the divinities, it
(09:51):
has been contended that Greek mythological forms may be recognized
in those of India. Similarly, the Chinese philosophy, as adopting
the one as its basis, has been alleged to be
the same as at a later period appeared as Eliatic
philosophy and as the Spinotzistic system. While in virtue of
(10:15):
its expressing itself also in abstract numbers and lines, Pythagorean
and Christian principles have been supposed to be detected in it.
Instances of bravery and indomitable courage, traits of magnanimity, of
self denial and self sacrifice, which are found among the
(10:37):
most savage and the most pusillanimous nations, are regarded as
sufficient to support the view that in these nations as
much of social virtue and morality may be found as
in the most civilized Christian states, or even more. And
on this ground a doubt has been suggested whether, in
(10:57):
the progress of history and of general culture, mankind have
become better, whether their morality has been increased. Morality being
regarded in a subject of aspect and view, as founded
on what the agent holds to be right and wrong,
good and evil, not on a principle which is considered
(11:19):
to be in and for itself right and good, or
a crime and evil, or on a particular religion believed
to be the true one. We may fairly decline on
this occasion the task of tracing the formalism and error
of such a view, and establishing the true principles of morality,
(11:43):
or rather of social virtue, in opposition to false morality.
For the history of the world occupies a higher ground
than that on which morality has properly its position, which
is personal character, the conscience of individuals, their particular will
and mode of action. These have a value imputation, reward
(12:07):
or punishment proper to themselves. But the absolute aim of
spirit requires and accomplishes what providence does transcends the obligation
and the liability to imputation, and the ascription of good
or bad motives which attached to individuality in virtue of
(12:28):
its social relations. They who, on moral grounds and consequently
with noble intention, have resisted that which the advance of
the spiritual idea makes necessary, stand higher in moral worth
than those whose crimes have been turned into the means
(12:50):
under the direction of a superior principle of realizing the
purposes of that principle. But in such revolutions both parties
generally stand within the limits of the same circle of
transient and corruptible existence. Consequently, it is only a formal rectitude,
(13:11):
deserted by the living spirit and by God, which those
who stand upon ancient rite and order maintain. The deeds
of great men, who are the individuals of the world's history,
thus appear not only justified in view of that intrinsic
result of which they were not conscious, but also from
(13:35):
the point of view occupied by the secular moralist. But
looked at from this point, moral claims that are irrelevant
must not be brought into collision with world historical deeds
and their accomplishment. The litany of private virtues modesty, humility, philanthropy,
(13:58):
and forbearance must not be raised against them. The history
of the world might, on principle, entirely ignore the circle
within which morality and the so much talked of distinction
between the moral and the politic lies, not only in
(14:18):
abstaining from judgments for the principles involved, and the necessary
reference of the deeds in question to those principles are
a sufficient judge of them, but in leaving individuals quite
out of view and unmentioned. What it has to record
is the activity of the spirit of peoples, so that
(14:40):
the individual forms which that spirit has assumed in the
sphere of outward reality might be left to the delineation
of special histories. The same kind of formalism avails itself
in its peculiar manner of the indefiniteness attaching to genius, poetry,
(15:02):
and even philosophy. Thinks equally that it finds these everywhere.
We have here products of reflective thought, and it is
familiarity with those general conceptions which single out and name
real distinctions without fathoming the true depth of the matter
that we call culture. It is something merely formal inasmuch
(15:27):
as it aims at nothing more than the analysis of
the subject, whatever it be, into its constituent parts, and
the comprehension of these in their logical definitions and forms.
It is not the free universality of conception necessary for
making an abstract principle the object of consciousness. Such a
(15:50):
consciousness of thought itself and of its forms, isolated from
a particular object is philosophy. This has, indeed the condition
of its existence in culture, that condition being the taking
up of the object of thought and at the same
time clothing it with the form of universality in such
(16:13):
a way that the material content and the form given
by the intellect are held in an inseparable state, inseparable
to such a degree that the object in question, which,
by the analysis of one conception into a multitude of
conceptions is enlarged to an incalculable treasure of thought, is
(16:37):
regarded as a merely empirical datum in whose formation thought
has had no share. But it is quite as much
an act of thought of the understanding, in particular, to
embrace in one simple conception an object which of itself
(16:58):
comprehends a concrete and large significance as earth man Alexander
or Caesar, and to designate it by one word as
to resolve such a conception, duly to isolate an idea
the conceptions which it contains, and to give them particular names,
(17:23):
and in reference to the view which gave occasion to
what has just been said. Thus much will be clear
that as reflection produces what we include under the general
terms genius, talent, art, science, formal culture, on every grade
of intellectual development not only can but must grow and
(17:44):
attain a mature bloom. While the grade in question is
developing itself to a state, and on this basis of
civilization is advancing to intelligent reflection and to general forms
of thought, as in laws. So in regard to all else,
(18:06):
in the very association of men in a state lies
the necessity of formal culture, consequently, of the rise of
the sciences, and of a cultivated poetry and art. Generally,
the arts designated plastic require, besides, even in their technical aspect,
the civilized association of men, the poetic art, which has
(18:32):
less need of external requirements and means, and which has
the element of immediate existence. The voice as its material,
steps forth with great boldness and with matured expression, even
under the conditions presented by a people not yet united
in a political combination. Since as remarked above, language attains,
(18:56):
on its own particular ground a high in intellectual development
prior to the commencement of civilization, philosophy also must make
its appearance where political life exists, since that in virtue
of which any series of phenomena is reduced within the
sphere of culture, as above stated, is the form strictly
(19:20):
proper to thought, and thus for philosophy, which is nothing
other than the consciousness of this form itself, the thinking
of thinking, the material of which its edifice is to
be constructed, is already prepared by general culture. If in
(19:41):
the development of the state itself, periods are necessitated which
impel the soul of nobler natures to seek refuge from
the present in ideal regions in order to find in
them that harmony with itself which it can no longer
enjoy in the discordant real world, where the reflective intelligence
(20:02):
attacks all that is wholly and deep which had been
spontaneously inwrought into the religion, laws, and manners of nations,
and brings them down and attenuates them to abstract, godless generalities.
Thought will be compelled to become thinking reason, with the
view of effecting in its own element the restoration of
(20:24):
its principles from the ruin to which they had been brought.
We find, then it is true among all world historical peoples, poetry,
plastic art, science, even philosophy. But not only is there
a diversity in style and bearing generally, but still more
(20:47):
remarkably in subject matter. And this is a diversity of
the most important kind, affecting the rationality of that subject matter.
It is useless for a pretentious esthetic criticism to demand
that our good pleasure should not be made the rule
for the matter the substantial part of their contents, and
(21:10):
to maintain that it is the beautiful form as such,
the grandeur of the fancy and so forth, which fine
art aims at, and which must be considered and enjoyed
by a liberal taste and cultivated mind. A healthy intellect
does not tolerate such abstractions, and cannot assimilate productions of
(21:35):
the kind above referred to. Granted that the Indian Epopeis
might be placed on a level with the Homeric on
account of a number of those qualities of form, grandeur,
of invention, and imaginative power, liveliness of images and emotions,
and beauty of diction. Yet the infinite difference of matter
(21:57):
remains consequently one of substantial importance in involving the interest
of reason, which is immediately concerned with the consciousness of
the idea of freedom and its expression in individuals. There
is not only a classical form, but a classical order
of subject matter, and in a work of art, form
(22:22):
and subject matter are so closely united that the former
can only be classical to the extent to which the
latter is so. With a fantastical, indeterminate material and rule
is the essence of reason, the form becomes measureless and formless,
(22:42):
or mean and contracted in the same way. In that
comparison of the various systems of philosophy of which we
have already spoken, the only point of importance is overlooked, namely,
the character of that unity, which is found alike in
the Chinese, the Eliatic, and the Schpinotzistic philosophy. The distinction
(23:05):
between the recognition of that unity as abstract and as concrete,
concrete to the extent of being a unity in and
by itself, a unity synonymous with spirit, but that coordination
proves that it recognizes only such an abstract unity, so
(23:29):
that while it gives judgment respecting philosophy, it is ignorant
of that very point which constitutes the interest of philosophy.
But there are also spheres which, amid all the variety
that is presented in the substantial content of a particular
form of culture, remain the same. The difference above mentioned
(23:56):
in art science philosophy concerns the thinking, reason and freedom,
which is the self consciousness of the former, and which
has the same one root with thought, As it is
not the brute, but only the man that thinks. He
only and only because he is a thinking thing, has freedom.
(24:21):
His consciousness imports this that the individual comprehends itself as
a person, that is, recognizes itself in its single existence,
as possessing universality, as capable of abstraction from and of
surrendering all speciality, and therefore as inherently infinite. Consequently, those
(24:49):
spheres of intelligence which lie beyond the limits of this
consciousness are a common ground among those substantial distinctions. Even morality,
which is so intimately connected with the consciousness of freedom,
can be very pure while that consciousness is still wanting
as far, that is to say, as it expresses duties
(25:12):
and writes only as objective commands, or even as far
as it remains satisfied with the merely formal elevation of
the soul, the surrender of the sensual and of all
sensual motives in a purely negative, self denying fashion. The
(25:33):
Chinese morality, since Europeans have become acquainted with it and
with the writings of Confucius, has obtained the greatest praise
and proportionate attention from those who are familiar with Christian morality.
There is a similar acknowledgment of the sublimity with which
the Indian religion and poetry, a statement that must, however,
(25:56):
be limited to the higher kind, but especially the Indian
philosophy expatiate upon and demand the removal and sacrifice of sensuality.
Yet both these nations are, it must be confessed, entirely
wanting in the essential consciousness of the idea of freedom.
(26:20):
To the Chinese, their moral laws are just like natural laws,
external positive commands, claims established by force, compulsory duties or
rules of courtesy towards each other, freedom through which alone
the essential determinations of reason become moral sentiments is wanting.
(26:44):
Morality is a political affair, and its laws are administered
by officers of government and legal tribunals their treatises upon it,
which are not law books, but are certainly addressed to
the subject of wills and individual disposition. Read as do
(27:04):
the moral writings of the Stoics, like a string of
commands stated as necessary for realizing the goal of happiness,
so that it seems to be left free to men
on their part to adopt such commands, to observe them
or not. While the conception of an abstract subject a
(27:25):
wise man forms the culminating point among the Chinese, as
also among the Stoic moralists. Also in the Indian doctrine
of the renunciation of the sensuality of desires and earthly interests.
Positive moral freedom is not the object and end, but
(27:45):
the annihilation of consciousness, spiritual and even physical privation of life.
It is the concrete spirit of a people, which we
have distinctly to recognize, and since it is spirit, it
can only be comprehended spiritually, that is, by thought. It
(28:08):
is this alone which takes the lead in all the
deeds and tendencies of that people, and which is occupied
in realizing itself, in satisfying its ideal, and becoming self conscious.
For its great business is self production. But for spirit,
the highest attainment is self knowledge, an advance not only
(28:32):
to the intuition, but to the thought, the clear conception
of itself. This it must and is also destined to accomplish.
But the accomplishment is at the same time its dissolution
and the rise of another spirit, another world, historical people,
(28:56):
another epoch of universal history. This transition and connection leads
us to the connection of the whole, the idea of
the world's history as such, which we have now to
consider more closely, and of which we have to give
a representation end the course of the world's history sub
(29:26):
Section two. This recording is in the public domain.
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