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CLASSICAL ESSAY |
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by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
The nature of spirit may be understood by a glance at its direct opposite -- Matter. As the essence of matter is gravity, so, on the other hand, we may affirm that the substance, the essence, of spirit is freedom. All will readily assent to the doctrine that spirit, among other properties, is also endowed with freedom; but philosophy teaches that all the qualities of spirit exist only through freedom; that all are but means for attaining freedom; that all seek and produce this and this alone. It is a result of speculative philosophy, that freedom is the sole truth of spirit. Matter possesses gravity in virtue of its tendency towards a central point. It is essentially composite; consisting of parts that exclude each other. It seeks its unity; and therefore exhibits itself as self-destructive, as verging towards its opposite [an indivisible point]. If it could attain this, it would be matter no longer, it would have perished. It strives after the realization of its idea; for in unit it exists ideally. Spirit, on the contrary, may be defined as that which has its center in itself. It has not a unity outside itself, but has already found it; it exists in and with itself. Matter has its essence out of itself; spirit is self-contained existence. Now this is freedom, exactly. For if I am dependent, my being is referred to something else which I am not; I cannot exist independently of anything external. I am free, on the contrary, when my existence depends upon myself. This self-contained existence of spirit is none other than self-consciousness -- consciousness of one's own being. Two things must be distinguished in consciousness; first, the fact that 1 know; secondly what I know. In self-consciousness these are merged in one; for spirit knows itself. It involves an appreciation of its own nature, as also an energy enabling it to realize itself; to make itself actually that which it is potentially. According to this abstract definition it may be said of universal history, that it is the exhibition of spirit in the process of working out the knowledge of that which it is potentially. . . . This vast congeries of volitions, interests, and activities, constitutes the instruments and means of the world-spirit for attaining its object; bringing it to consciousness, and realizing it. And this aim is none other than finding itself -- coming to itself -- and contemplating itself in concrete actuality. But that those manifestations of vitality on the part of individuals and peoples, in which they seek and satisfy their own purposes, are, at the same time, the means and instruments of a higher and broader purpose of which they know nothing, -- which they realize unconsciously, -- might be made a matter of question; rather has been questioned, and in every variety of form negatived, decried, and contemned as mere dreaming and "Philosophy." But on this point I announced my view at the very outset, and asserted our hypothesis, -- which, however, will appear in the sequel, in the form of a legitimate inference, and our belief that reason governs the world, and has consequently governed its history. In relation to this independently universal and substantial existence -- all else is subordinate, subservient to it, and the means for its development. The union of universal abstract existence generally with the individual, the subjective, that this alone is truth, belongs to the department of speculation, and is treated in this general form in logic. But in the process of the world's history itself -- as still incomplete, -- the abstract final aim of history is not yet made the distinct object of desire and interest. While these limited sentiments are still unconscious of the purpose they are fulfilling, the universal principle is implicit in them and is realizing itself through them. The question also assumes the form of the union of freedom and necessity; the latent abstract process of spirit being regarded as necessity, while that which exhibits itself in the conscious will of men, as their interest, belongs to the domain of freedom. As the metaphysical connection (i.e. the connection in the idea) of these forms of thought, belongs to logic, it would be out of place to analyze it here. The chief and cardinal points only shall be mentioned. Philosophy shows that the idea advances to an infinite antithesis; that, viz. between the idea in its free, universal form -- in which it exists for itself -- and the contrasted form of abstract introversion, reflection on itself, which is formal existence-for-self, personality, formal freedom, such as belongs to spirit only. The universal idea exists thus as the substantial essence of free volition on the other side. This reflection of the mind on itself is individual self-consciousness -- the polar opposite of the idea in its general form, and therefore existing in absolute limitation. This polar opposite is consequently limitation, particularization for the universal absolute thing; it is the side of its definite existence; the sphere of its formal reality, the sphere of the reverence paid to God. To comprehend the absolute connection of this antithesis, is the profound task of metaphysics. This limitation originates all forms of particularity of whatever kind. The formal volition (of which we have spoken) wills itself; desires to make its own personality valid in all that it purposes and does; even the pious individual wishes to be saved and happy. This pole of the antithesis, existing for itself, is -- in contrast with the absolute universal being -- a special separate existence, taking cognizance of specialty only, and willing that alone. In short it plays its part in the region of mere phenomena. This is the sphere of particular purposes, in effecting which individuals exert themselves on behalf of their individuality -- give it full play and objective realization. This is also the sphere of happiness and its opposite. He is happy who finds his condition suited to his special character, will, and fancy, and so enjoys himself in that condition. The history of the world is not the theater of happiness. Periods of happiness are blank pages in it, for they are periods of harmony, -- periods when the antithesis is in abeyance. Reflection on self, -- the freedom above described -- is abstractly defined as the formal element of the activity of the absolute idea. The realizing activity of which we have spoken is the middle term of syllogism, one of whose extremes is the universal essence, the idea, which reposes in the penetralia of spirit; and the other, the complex of external things, -- objective matter. That activity is the medium by which the universal latent principle is translated into the domain of objectivity. What is the material in which the ideal of reason is wrought out? The primary answer would be, -- personality itself -- human desires -- subjectivity, generally. In human knowledge and volition, as its material element, reason attains positive existence. We have considered subjective volition where it has an object which is the truth and essence of a reality, viz. where it constitutes a great world-historical passion. As a subjective will, occupied with limited passions, it is dependent, and can gratify its desires only within the limits of this dependence. But the subjective will has also a substantial life -- a reality, -- in which it moves in the region of essential being, and has the essential itself as the object of its existence. This essential being is the union of the subjective with the rational will: it is the moral whole, the state, which is that form of reality in which the individual has enjoys his freedom; but on the condition of his recognizing, believing in and willing that which is common to the whole. And this must not be understood as if the subjective will of the social unit attained its gratification and enjoyment through that common will; as if this were a means provided for its benefit; as if the individual, in his relations to other individuals, thus limited his freedom, in order that this universal limitation -- the mutual constraint of all -- might secure a small space of liberty for each. Rather, we affirm, are law, morality, government, and they alone, the positive reality and completion of freedom. Freedom of a low and limited order, is mere caprice; which finds its exercise in the sphere of particular and limited desires. Subjective volition -- passion -- is that which sets men in activity, that which effects "practical" realization. The idea is the inner spring of action; the state is the actually existing, realized moral life. For it is the unity of the universal, essential will, with that of the individual; and this is "morality." The individual living in this unity has a moral life; possesses a value that consists in this substantiality alone. Sophocles in his Antigone says, "The divine commands are not of yesterday, nor of today; no, they have an infinite existence, and no one could say whence" they came." The laws of morality are not accidental, but are the essentially rational. It is the very object of the state, that what is essential in the practical activity of men, and in their dispositions, should be duly recognized; that it should have a manifest existence, and maintain its position. It is the absolute interest of reason that this moral whole should exist; and herein lies the justification and merit of heroes who have founded states, -- however rude these may have been. In the history of the world, only those peoples can come under our notice which form a state. For it must be understood that this latter is the realization of freedom, i.e. of the absolute final aim, and that it exists for its own sake. It must further be understood that all the worth which the human being possesses -- all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the state. For his spiritual reality consists in this, that his own essence -- reason -- is objectively present to him, that it possesses objective immediate existence for him. Thus only is he fully conscious; thus only is he a partaker of morality -- of a just and moral social and political life. For truth is the unity of the universal and subjective will; and the universal is to be found in the state, in its laws, its universal and rational arrangements. The state is the divine idea as it exists on earth. We have in it therefore, the object of history in a more definite shape than before; that in which freedom obtains objectivity, and lives in the enjoyment of this objectivity. For law is the objectivity of spirit; volition in its true form. Only that will which obeys law is free; for it obeys itself -- it is independent and so free. When the state or our country constitutes a community of existence; when the subjective will of man submits to laws, -- the contradiction between liberty and necessity vanishes. The rational has necessary existence, as being the reality and substance of things, and we are free in recognizing it as law, and following it as the substance of our own being. The objective and the subjective will are then reconciled, and present one identical homogeneous whole. For the morality of the state is not of that ethical reflective kind, in which one's conviction bears sway; this latter is rather the peculiarity of the modern time, while the true antique morality is based on the principle of abiding by ones duty (to the State at large). An Athenian citizen did what was required of him, as it were from instinct: but if I reflect on the object of my activity, I must have the consciousness that my will has been called into exercise. But morality is duly -- substantial right -- a "second nature" as it has been justly called; for the first nature of man is his primary merely animal existence. Summing up what has been said of the state, we find that we have been led to call its vital principle, as actuating the individuals who compose it, -- morality. The state, its laws, its arrangements, constitute the rights of its members; its natural features, its mountains, air, and waters are their country, their fatherland, their outward material property the history of this state, their deeds; what their ancestors have produced belongs to them and lives in their memory. All is their possession, just as they are possessed by it; for it constitutes their existence, their being. Their imagination is occupied with the ideas thus presented, while the adoption of these laws, and of a fatherland so conditioned is the expression of their will. It is this matured totality which thus constitutes one being, the spirit of one people. To it the individual members belong; each unit is the son of his nation, and at the same time -- in so far as the state to which he belongs is undergoing development -- the son of his age. None remains behind it, still less advances beyond it. This spiritual being (the spirit of his time) is his; he is a representative of it; it is that in which he originated, and in which he lives. Among the Athenians the word Athens had a double import; suggesting primarily, a complex of political institutions, but no less, in the second place, that goddess who represented the spirit of the people and its unity. This spirit of a people is a determinate and particular spirit, and is, as just stated, further modified by the degree of its historical development. This spirit, then, constitutes the basis and substance of those other forms of a nation's consciousness, which have been noticed. For spirit in its self-consciousness must become an object of contemplation to itself, and objectivity involves, in the first instance, the rise of differences which make up a total of distinct spheres of objective spirit, in the same way as the soul exists only as the complex of its faculties, which in their form of concentration in a simple unity produce that soul. It is thus one individuality which, presented in its essence as God, is honored and enjoyed in religion; which is exhibited as an object of sensuous contemplation in art; and is apprehended as an intellectual conception in philosophy. In virtue of the original identity of their essence, purport, and object, these various forms are inseparably united with the spirit of the state. Only in connection with this particular religion, can this particular political constitution exist; just as in such or such a state, such or such a philosophy or order of art. The remark next in order is, that each particular national genius is to be treated as only one individual in the process of universal history. For that history is the exhibition of the divine, absolute development of spirit in its highest forms, -- that gradation by which it attains its truth and consciousness of itself. The forms which these grades of progress assume are the characteristic "national spirits" of history, the peculiar tenor of their moral life, of their Government, their art, religion, and science. To realize these grades is the boundless impulse of the world-spirit -- the goal of its irresistible urging; for this division into organic members, and the full development of each, is its idea. Universal history is exclusively occupied with showing how spirit comes to a recognition and adoption of the truth: the dawn of knowledge appears; it begins to discover salient principles, and at last it arrives at full consciousness. Having, therefore, learned the abstract characteristics of the nature of spirit, the means which it uses to realize its idea, and the shape assumed by it in its complete realization in phenomenal existence, -- namely, the state, nothing further remains for this introductory section to contemplate, but -- the course of the world's history. Excerpted from Lectures on the Philosophy of History, by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel |
Lectures
on the Philosophy The
Philosophy of
History,
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