A Skeptic Reads Hegel Part 1: Introductions
A Skeptic Reads Hegel Part 1: Introductions
I have barely started the introduction to his Philosophy of History and already I am running into some loaded concepts. In particular, the idea of the rational progression of history pointing to providence. In other words, History seems to be trending towards something which infers the existence of God. As I have barely started on Hegel’s works, I will reserve criticism. I do want to record my first impression so I can see how strong of a case can be built for this idea of Universal History imbued with Reason.
First, I can see no basis for asserting that history is rational or progressive. Even if we take the literal interpretation of what has happened in the past from our history books, forgetting all the flaws of historiography, human history seems more cyclical than progressive. Equilibrium -> growth -> crisis -> collapse -> equilibrium -> repeat. You could say that we never slide all the way back after a collapse and therefore the trend is progressive. However, that leads to another issue.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the concept. I’ve listened to hours of Terence McKenna rattling on about the concrescence of history. It would be awesome if history could be proved to be progressive, but I need more evidence to take me from “gee, that’s interesting” to truth.
Supposing I were to accept the rational foundation of history, there is also this idea that God, specifically the Christian God, can be revealed by studying this Universal History. Sounds like a leap to me, but I’ll check in after I have completed The Philosophy of History. Perhaps a conversion experience awaits.
When reading Hegel please don't fall into the atheist trap. You mentioned the inference toward the existence of God. It seems that most philosophical critiques attempt to erase the possibility of God without understanding (purposely or otherwise) that almost all of the people they critique were believers. For example Malthus, Essay on Population: Malthus was a minister and believed that we all wouldn't perish from hunger because of God's innate intervention, a fact lost on the atheistic Malthusians. My philosophical mentor was George Stengren who wrote a marvelous book on Hegel's influence on Kierkegaard who was Catholic despite being an Existentialist. I enjoyed your perspective.
Is there a German word for that feeling you get that this can't be real life? Like it seems so absurd that someone must have made it up. Hegel says that history is leading to the point of revealing the existence of God. There is the idea floating around that "The Simulation" is revealing itself through the escalation of reality's stranger-than-fiction quality.
Traum... welt... something-or-other. What if we rewrote Hegel's references to providence and God as references to simulation and the programmer (the way people are doing with the new testament)? I bet that would resonate with many philosphers and futurists today.
He is my favorite philosopher until now!
We need to understand the differences of the times.
For example,
expression of the era
Yes! That's a part of this book I really want to dive into, zeitgeists running through epochs.