#HEGEL DIALECTIC QUOTES FREE#
In other words, it means the power of the individual to make decisions in accordance with their essential, rational nature, free from the encumbrances of prejudice, ignorance, instinct, and so on.
First, it affirms that the highest purpose of the individual is self-realization, which, for Hegel (following Kant) means rational autonomy. This doctrine has definite implications for philosophy of history. There is literally nothing that exists that is not a product of Reason. According to Hegel, this accounts not only for all change in History, but all change in Existence-for Existence is nothing other than the outer form of Reason, Reason the essential nature of Existence, and dialectic the essential nature of Reason. Out of this conflict comes synthesis-a new equilibrium that then becomes the thesis of a new dialectic process. It has to struggle for self-realization in opposition to the antithesis, which can be either the system and its components as they were before, or elements within itself that are not in harmony with its essential nature. This struggle can be understood in terms of “the dialectic process.” First, there is the thesis, a new thing that, by emerging into an already-existing system, always disrupts it in some way. Everything, Hegel argued, is constantly striving to become what it should be, from the acorn struggling to become an oak tree, to the philosopher struggling to become wise, to the state struggling to order the world. (This conception of history is often signified by writing the word with a capital “H.”) That necessary nature, according to Hegel, is struggle-and not just struggle for the privilege of existing and reproducing, as Darwin tells us, but more importantly, for that of self-realization, or in other words, to make our rational nature manifest, not simply in potential but in fact. By and large, we just don’t think that way.Īpplying this view to history, which English-speaking philosophers and historians often tacitly assume, or openly declare, has no meaning in and of itself, but is just “one damn thing after another.” Hegel argued that it, like everything else, contains an essential, rational, necessary nature, which compels it to develop exactly as it does, and which man, because he is rational, can understand. This is the reason Hegel in particular, and German philosophy in general, makes such painfully opaque reading for English speakers. The first philosophy suggests a discussion of objects and events that exist in time and space the second a discussion of concepts that reside only within ourselves. On the second, the object of contemplation is the mind, the tool is reason, and metaphysics, defined as the necessary structure of the mind itself, is everything. On the first view, the object of contemplation is reality, the tool is the senses, and metaphysics, since it cannot be apprehended by the senses, is nonsense about nothing. This conspiracy is in no way arbitrary, for it resides, not in our opinions, but in the structure of the mind itself, which we cannot alter. This view stands in contrast to the typical view of German philosophers, who, following Kant, see the world as an undifferentiated and meaningless collection of who-knows-what-an impenetrable cosmic mystery-which the senses and reason conspire to impart with meaning, form, and intelligibility in general. When an English-speaking philosopher looks out at the world, he or she usually sees a straightforward collection of objects and forces that are apprehended more or less as they are by their senses. We shall try to reduce some of his theoretificationizing to plain English. Indeed, the obscurity of Hegel’s thought is legendary, even among philosophers, as is his passion for run-on sentences and obscure technical jargon. Or perhaps we should say that many people want to read him, but few can understand him. Mark Twain is supposed to have said that a classic is a book everyone praises, and no one reads-an observation that we might apply to the works of Georg William Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831). Pure Reason, incapable of any limitation, is the Deity itself.
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