Georg
Hegel (1770-1831) drew his philosophy for the Romantic phrase ‘world spirit’ but
used this phrase differently. Hegel meant, “the sum of human utterances.” Truth
according to Hegel is subjective and
there is no truth above human reason as it is manifested in human history. All
philosophers before Hegel said that there were some timeless truths. Hegel
thought that human cognition changed from generation to generation in constant
flux which drove history itself forwards towards the knowledge of the absolute.
You can’t say that one is better than another. Thoughts at a particular time
simply shape the future as they are the result of the past. So Hegel argues
that you can’t claim a thought to be correct forever, just at a particular
point in time since it is always conditioned by history (this view is called
"Historicism"). A thought may be reasonable now, but not necessarily in
the future. In Hegel opinion you cannot detach anyone from historical context.
The world spirit progresses according to Hegel through a mechanism calls
"Dialectics" (Hegel's is a idealist dialectics as opposed to Marx's material dialectics). There is a dialectic process – thesis, antithesis, and
then synthesis. A thought, followed by a dissension, followed by the synthesis
of those two ideas. That which is right survives. The thought that women
couldn’t think was ruled by opinions and arbitrary inclinations. According to
Hegel we need the tension of an opposite to define a term. Hegel also opposed
individualism – emphasized importance of family, civil society and state.
Everyone is born into a historical background and state. In Hegel's view one
must find a higher place in the state. The state is more than the sum of the
people. (subjective, objective + absolute spirit..
You can also check out these summaries of Hegel's thought:
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