Discovering Hegel: from Philosophy to social Theory (Part-II)

Analyzing the Philosophical work of G.W Hegel

Findlay, J. N. (1958). Hegel: A re-examination. London: Allen & Unwin

Hegel, G. W. F., Baillie, J. B., & Lichtheim, G. (1967). The phenomenology of mind. New York: Harper & Row

History with a purpose

Hegel was too much concerned with the philosophy of history. Moreover, Hegel accepted Schiller’s suggestion that the very foundation of the human condition could change from one historical era to another. Basically, it was the notion of change or development throughout history that is central to Hegel’s view of the world. What Famous German Materialist Frederick Engel wrote?

“What distinguished Hegel’s mode of thinking from that of all other philosophers was the exceptional historical sense underlying it. However, idealists and abstract the form employed the development of his ideas always parallel to the development of the world history, and the latter is indeed supposed to be the only proof of the former”.

Basically, the development of the world history was the ‘proof’ of the ‘Hegel’s ‘system of ideas’. Moreover, Hegel’s idea of the development of world history was the major foundation of the Hegelian system of ideas. On the other hand, it was actually Hegel’s historical sense, which influenced the thinking of Karl Marx.

What is Philosophy of History?

Hegel’s Philosophy of History contains a detail outline of the world history, from the early civilization of China, India, and Persia, through ancient Greece to Roman era, and then tracing the path of the European history from Feudalism to reformation and then to the Age of Enlightenment. Basically, in the Philosophy of History Hegel establishes facts beyond facts—what Hegel said; “The philosophy of history means nothing but the thoughtful consideration of it”. Here the word, “thoughtful consideration’ means history must present raw materials for the rational development of the process. On the contrary, Hegel believed that ‘History has a meaning and significance”—the philosophy of history has marked itself as one of the influential writings of Hegel.

On the contrary, the modern thought refuses that history has an ultimate purpose beyond myriad individual purposes of the countless human beings who make history. History is working out of purpose of some creators, who sets the whole process in motion, mysteriously; it may be intended to suggest universe itself has a purpose. There are various ways to interpret the Hegel’s ‘Philosophy of History’:

History has Meaning:

In the introduction of the Philosophy of History Hegel claims that “the history of the world is none other than the progress of the consciousness of freedom”. He begins with the ‘Oriental World’—which refers to the ancient civilizations of China, India and Persia.

Hegel considered China and India as the ‘stationary civilization’, the societies that have reached to a certain point of their development and then somehow stuck fast. He describes them as the ‘Outside of the world history’ not as a part of overall development in the domain of the Philosophy of History.

For Hegel, true history begins with Persian Empire ‘the First Empire’ Hegel says “that passed away”. In Hegel’s view, in course of the oriental societies only one person or ruler is a free individual—this means only the ruler/King has a saying while all others are slave subjects. On the other hand, the subjects were being subjected to utter cruelty for disobeying the will of the despot. According to Hegel, the oriental subject has no will or freedom in the modern sense. Likewise, in the orient not only law but morality itself is a matter of external regulation. They lack the individual conscience—they cannot question except the existence of mountains and the sea. According to Hegel, the concept of personal independence has different forms in different oriental cultures but the result is same. The paternalism is the center of power in the oriental societies that is why Chinese are much loyal and obedient to their parents.

On the other hand, in India, there is also no concept of freedom because the institution of caste system is present there—the caste system allocates to each his/her own occupation of life.[1] It is because, the Indians consider Caste system as natural and unchangeable—in this regard, the governing power in India is the despotism of nature. As an illustration, Persia was a theocratic society based on the religion of Zoroaster, who worships light. Hegel make this idea of light as pure and universal, something like Sun that shines all and equally benefits all. But this rule was based on general principle and was not seen as the natural fact meant that development was possible—here is the true beginning of the true history.[2]

It is because, in Persia, the growth in the consciousness of Freedom existed but this potential could not be recognized or realized within the structure of the empire. The Persian King attempted to expand its influence over Athens and Sparta, when asked for submission to Persia; both Sparta and Athens refused. Then, in response, the Persian despot has assembled a large army and fleets and the battle was finally fought at the ‘Salamis’.[3]

According to Hegel; “this was a contest between the ‘oriental despot’, who sought to unite the world under one lord, and the separate states, which recognize the principle of free individuality”. In contrast, the Greek history means that the tides of the world history passed from the despotic oriental world to the world of Greek city states.[4] Basically, Hegel saw the Greek world as animated by the idea of free individuality. Besides the fact, the slavery even existed within democracy. Unlike the orient, the Greek society progressed to a stage in which some not-all-the-individuals were free. As an illustration, in the Oriental world, people simply obey without reflection; “a moral code that has been handed out to them from the high, but with Greeks the motivation came from inside themselves”. Moreover, Orientals were living for their country without thinking about themselves while Greeks were living for themselves. Likewise, it was the readiness of the Greeks to do best for their communities, which as a whole came from within.

As compared to Orientals, the Greeks were very much free—for Greeks, there was no need of external force or decree. Yet Hegel says; this is the incomplete freedom just because the motivation comes so naturally—still habits and customs were more powerful than reason—Reason is our own while customs or habits comes from the social forces. In addition, there were some limited external forces in the Greek society—the Greek tendency to consult an oracle before any important venture or event. [5]

On the contrary, it is the reason that lifts people above the chance events of the natural world that enable them to reflect critically on the external forces. Critical thought and reflection is key to the progress in the development of freedom. It was the command of the Greek God Apollo, who urged Greeks along this path “Man, Know thyself”—this means, if you know what is good, right, and just then you have a reason otherwise not. Even famous Greek Philosopher, Socrates was influenced from God Apollo—he posses the case of a friend, who lent you a weapon but has since became deranged—you may owe him the weapon but is it really just to return it? Through this example Socrates leads the audience to a critical reflection over the customary morality. In this regard, the critical reflection relies on reason not customs. Hegel sees Socrates and his critical thought as the revolutionary force against the Athenian state and he saw the principles exemplified by Socrates as a revolutionary force against the Athenian state. Thus, he judges the death sentence passed upon Socrates as impeachably correct: “The Athenian people were condemning the deadliest foe of the customary morality on which their communal existence was based. It was the principle of the independent that led to the downfall of the Greek Civilization”.

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The Roman World

According to Hegel, the Roman was established from the collection of the diverse people lacking all natural patriarch or other customary bonds, and hence requiring the most severe discipline backed by the strong force to hold it together. For Hegel, this makes the Roman dominance in the next stage of the world in the form of despotic oriental models as typified in the Persian Empire. Moreover, the course of the world history has never been smooth and progressive and it never goes backward. For Hegel, the idea of individuality of the private capacity of the judgment that was born in the Greek era has not disappeared. Basically, Romans inherited the tradition of individuality from Greeks. Moreover, the Roman state rests upon the constitution and the legal system in which the individual right was one of the important notion of the constitution. [6] in the meantime, there was a big difference between the Roman and Persian Empire because the Roman Empire was in constant battle between the absolute power and the state of individuality while in the Persian Empire, there was absolute despotism.

The battle between the absolute power and the state of individuality was absent in the Persian Empire because individuality was yet to be developed. According to Hegel, the Roman world is not a happy place because the Joyous and spontaneous traditions of the Greek world has been broken. The power was centralized against the state of individuality. On the face of demand of the state, freedom can only be found by taking refuge in a philosophy such as Stoicism, Epicureanism, or Skepticism. According to Hegel, the retreat into the aforementioned philosophies was a negative response to the situation; because it resembles despair in the face of hostile world—thus, people were searching for solutions and finally this solution was provided by Christianity. [7]  In the context of the Roman world, the natural world was resistant to the aspiration for freedom except retreating to philosophy, there was no other solution. Likewise, the retreat to philosophy gave birth to negative attitude in the natural environment—hence came Christianity to console the wretched Romans with spirituality.

Basically, Hegel saw Christian religion as key to play a vibrant role to achieve the awareness about the spiritual nature of human beings. What Hegel says; Christianity can teach spirituality to overcome the natural desires of human beings and even to the whole natural existence. On the contrary, the customary morality of the ancient Greece was replaced by the spiritual idea of love. According to Hegel, the Christianity reached the Roman Empire at the time of Constantine the Great. But in the west half of the Empire went under the barbarian invasion, while the Byzantine Empire remained Christian for thousands of years. For Hegel, it was the decadent of the Christianity because it attempted to put Christian veneers over the already fractured and rotten structure at the core. [8]

In one place, Hegel used the word ‘Germanic World’ to denote the history of Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire. He didn’t use the word ‘German’ instead ‘Germanic’ in a wider sense that includes Scandinavian, the Netherlands and even the British—the Anglo-Saxons. Because of the language affinities he did not include France and Italy besides their significant role in Europe.[9] In contrast, this description was not based because of the ethno-centrism rather it was based on the eventual reformation. Basically, Hegel shows a gloomy picture of Europe since the fall of Roman Empire. During this time, Hegel proclaims, Church became a sign/symbol of perversion of true religious spirit, inserting itself between man and the spiritual world by demanding blinding obedience. This is why, Hegel called Middle Age as the “Long, eventual and terrible nights”: a night or nightmare, which was finally ended by renaissance. What Hegel says; “The Blush of dawn which after a long first betokens the return of bright and glorious day”.

According to Hegel, the so-called Church and Papacy had not treated Deity as a purely spiritual being instead embodied the material purpose. In this way, the church caused perversion and compelled people for blind obedience. Likewise, via this perversion the material object was attached to the spiritual element of human beings. For Hegel, it was the practice of the Catholic Church’s selling of the indulgence that caused the Lutheran protests—the Lutheran revolution/the protestant revolution.

In a nut shell, Hegel has always stressed on the interconnectedness of different aspects of historical development. In the context of reformation, Hegel stressed on the banner of free spirit by proclaiming his essential principle; “Man in his very nature is destined to be free”.  For Hegel, since the reformation, the world has transformed based on this essential principle. All the institutions including Law, Society and institutions must be judged with the highest standards of reason. Only then individual will freely choose to accept and support these institutions. Basically the Age of Enlightenment brought nothing but to subject everything to the cold light of the reason instead of superstition and hereditary privileges (Page 20).

Today Humanity needs a glorious mental dawn—because reformation was basically a glorious mental dawn. Moreover, all the thinking beings have shared in jubilation of this epoch. For Hegel, the “reign of Terror” occurred because of the misconception and misinterpretation of the reason. The people position was rejected. But the fact cannot be denied that the objective world is nothing without social and political institutions that must be organized rationally and the individual must act according to their conviction and conscience. Likewise, if the objective world is not organized rationally then human actions according to their personal experience will come into conflict with the existing law. Moreover, the freedom will exist on both subjective and objective level; if there is no restriction on freedom, for there will be a perfect harmony between the free choices of individual and needs of society as a whole.

 

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[1] For instance, the case of Dalits in the Hindu Society, who have been subjugated by the upper caste Brahmans for centuries—Brahmans, who call themselves as the upper caste deem Dalits to low works according to their holy scripture. There is a whole discourse on Mohandas Gandhi and Dr. Ambedkar, who was the leader of Dalit Community during the British Raj. This discourse has been thoroughly explained by Famous Indian Novelist and writer Arundati Roy in her famous book ‘The Doctor and the Saint: Caste, Race, and Annihilation of Caste, the Debate’.

[2] But, this doesn’t mean that Persia was an egalitarian empire because the nature of the emperor/King was absolute and perhaps, the only free man.

[3] Salamis Island is the largest Island in Greece in the Saronic Gulf.

[4] Hegel also claimed that ‘Greeks had no freedom of conscience’—it allowed slavery.

[5] The Oracle often used to be in the form of sacrificing animals which is independent of our own thought. 

[6] When we talk about the Greek world, the situation is totally different because the power was not centralized against the individuality.

[7] It was famous Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, who declared Christianity as a State religion—the first universal religion or state, which appeared upon the remnants of the ancient Rome.

[8] Hegel’s Doctrine of “Religious Self-consciousness” refers to recognition that it is the spiritual world not the natural world that is our true home.

[9]Basically Hegel was not ethnocentric rather he was fully enlightened about the deep-rooted European history since the collapse of Roman Empire.