Hegelianism

A brief history of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Hegel was born in southern Germany His mother died when he was thirteen years old, due to a fever, which Hegel himself almost perished of. In his younger years Hegel read many writings by enlightenment authors, which helped to shape his later views.

Cont… At age eighteen he entered a Protestant seminary where he met two people who helped him become the person he was later in his life: a poet, Friedrich Holderlin, and a philosopher, Friedrich Wilheim Joseph Schelling. All three were inspired partially by the French Revolution.

Works/Writings Hegel wrote but four books during his life: Phenomenology of Spirit Science of Logic Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences Elements of the Philosophy of Right

The Philosophy of Hegelianism “The rational alone is real”

Triadic Development By developing the philosophy on top of previous findings, nothing will contradict itself. This will build towards the true form of the philosophy. For instance, if we want to know more on liberty, we find it in its earliest form, the savage, who is restrained by nothing. This savage then gives up liberty for tyranny, or civilization and law. However, the people under this law, having accepted the law find a higher meaning of liberty in having power under this law. In essence, the second stage will always be the complete opposite of the first, destroying the first, while the third brings back the first in a more knowledgeable manner.

Three Stages In - itself (An-sich) Out of itself (Anderssein) In and for itself (An-ud-fur-sich) A being must first think only for itself (in – itself). Then it must go against that way of thinking entirely (out of itself) Then and only then can it move to a higher plane thinking both for itself and others (In and for itself) This higher stage is achieving ones ‘essence’.

Extensions on Aristotle’s Thinking To Aristotle the most important thing about understanding ‘being’, is to be able to say that a table is a table. Hegel extended this saying that it is important to also understand that the table was once a tree and will be ashes eventually. To fully understand a being you must know its past and future, not just what is presented to you. In this sense becoming, rather than being is the most important thing in reality, because you need to know how to best approach the path forged for you.

Philosophy of Nature Stage three of Hegel’s philosophy involves unity of all parts to form the highest form of being, mind. In nature he shows that the beings are broken, as there are many different types of creatures that do not necessarily work in harmony. However, he shows that in fact they are but one, as they all strive for the same goal of that unity. He also says that anything that comes from nature has had achievement of finding itself, or its essence, in life.

Philosophy of Mind When Hegel looks at the mind through his philosophy, he breaks it into the three stages. The in – itself stage, where the mind thinks only of itself. The out of itself stage where the mind is only concerned with laws and morals. And the in and for itself stage, where the mind focuses on philosophy, religion, and art. The essence of the mind is freedom, and as it progresses through the stages it gets closer to that freedom.

Philosophy and Religion Hegelianists believed that philosophy oversaw religion, in the sense that it was a greater way of life than a religious one. He saw that whatever truth existed in art and religion was philosophical at the core, and therefore without the philosophical view they could not exist, showing the philosophy was the true basis for all of this, and what humanity should be striving for.

Two Branches Hegelianism split into two followings. Hegelian rightists followed his philosophy along with christian theology. Hegelian leftists followed his philosophy in its ‘true’ form which was more anti-christian.

Hegelian Rightists Took a conservative approach to Hegelianism, in that, they used the thought that understanding history allowed one to advance, a people must understand and follow their state to advance. In this sense they used it as a political system, saying that the people needed to follow the state to move forward in life, disobeying would not allow for fulfillment.

Hegelian Leftists Also known as Young Hegelians, they were opposed to the thinking of the Hegelian Rightists. Where the rights felt that society as it was, was perfect, the lefts felt quite the opposite. They felt that many more changes had to happen before that perfection, or essence, could be found. They felt that the state could only rule when backed by a religion, as was the case in Prussia at the time. As such, the only way they could attack the state itself was to attack the religion, and thus the philosophy governing the religion, that backed the state. Karl Marx was one of the early members, though later he felt their ideals were ‘weak’ and broke off to follow his own.

The End of Hegelianism After the 19th century Hegelianism died down. Its ideals were used sparingly in a few ‘ism’s (communitarianism) in the 20th century but most of it was thrown to the wayside.

Credits PP by Josh Sempier