Understanding Beethoven
Transcription:
Hegel (1770-1831)
Tübingen-Jena
Phenomenology of Spirit (earliest philosophy text)
- Spirit has a narrative character
- Spirit unfolds dialectically
- Expression of themes in dialectical structures
Hegel's philosophy begins with the idea that history must be intelligible (not people suffering accidental deaths but there are reasons for everything) if you are going to philosophize history.
- History ultimately has to be understood as theodicy.
History = story of reason (its self-realization)
- Reason is the substance/content of the history (not some abstract thing)
- History is goal directed: to realize the fullest freedom: Recostructing human struggles to prove that history is the realization of freedom
- History = idea of freedom manifesting itself
- Self-relization of the Geist
- Geist = Mind/spirit
- human consciousness at large or abstract/general being
- Philosophy of history of retrospective: you can only look back at past incidents and reconstruct (where we are at right now is the result of all the "lead-up"s from the past.)
- You're going to only grant the rationality (you cann use this to criticize present)