HEGEL’S HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY: HIS ACCOUNT REGARDING THE SPIRIT,

ACTIVITY OF FREE THOUGHT AND THE SIGN OF TIMES

BEA CLARISSE E. GUMAMIT

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 The idea on how we usually view the concept of history is very different in comparison to

how the history of philosophy is explained according to Hegel. The main subject between the

history of philosophy and history is different from one another (depending on what perspective

you’re looking at in understanding these concepts), simply because they are both focusing on two

different subject matters, but if we are to define what those two are (not based from Hegel); history

is a chronological record of significant events (such as those affecting a nation or institution) often

including an explanation of their causes.1 While the history of philosophy talks about the activities

of free thought or how the intellectual world came into being, produced and developed into the

history of thought.2 In this paper, were going to scan through Hegel’s idea of what history and

philosophy is and explain how these ideas work with the concept of spirit, the free activity of

thought and the idea of sign of times, which is a part of his discussion. With that being said, let’s

move on to our topic.

Now for Hegel, the concept of history is not just some random event that happened through

the span of time; it is a process of unraveling a sequence of events that shows our intellectual

awakening.3This intellectual awakening is something that is already there and is discovered only

through the help of reason.4 So, what role does reason play in Hegel’s discussion? There was a

quote in one of the references that I used, in which I think sums up the very description of why

reason is important.

1
Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. history, accessed March 09, 2020, https://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/history.
2
Hegel, GWF. Introduction to the History of Philosophy, in Quentin Lauer, S. J., Hegel’s Idea of Philosophy. USA:
Fordham University Press, 1983.
3
Ibid, 1.
4
Ibid.
 “What makes man nobler than the beast is what he possesses through
thought.5”

It is important to understand this phrase, since the concept of how history unravels, is

because of man’s rational activity or capability to reason. With that being said, man is able to

discover that he is in fact free of thought and lives in a universe that is controlled by reason itself.

from how I understood Hegel’s idea, reason becomes a valuable key in order for us to continue

progressing and to slowly reach the telos of history.6 These said event in history can be called as

the sign of times, since the role of the sign of time, is to show or mark the important parts of history

(in particular, the progress of humanity’s rationality).7

Now that we have an idea of what the history of philosophy is, we can now go deeper into

the idea of this subject matter and relate it to Hegel’s concept of Spirit. Hegel’s Idea of spirit is

different in comparison to what we usually think a spirit is (the ghostly kind), for him, it is the

ultimate reality and the essence of our collective thinking .8 This why Hegel made an emphasis

for us to know the concept of a whole first, before individually analyzing an idea; because that is

the very essence of the manifestation of Spirit.9 He also mentioned that do so will guarantee us a

some kind of truth if we are to look at a philosophy by its whole concept rather than just simply

examining one, that can turn out to be false.10 Here we can say that history contains or embodies

5
Hegel, GWF. Introduction to the History of Philosophy, in Quentin Lauer, S. J., Hegel’s Idea of Philosophy. USA:
Fordham University Press, 1983.
6
Ibid.
7
Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. “a sign of the times,” accessed March 10, 2020, https://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/a%20sign%20of%20the%20times.
8
Redding, Paul. George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Edited by Edward N. Zalta. 2020.
https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2020/entries/hegel

9
Hegel, GWF. Introduction to the History of Philosophy, in Quentin Lauer, S. J., Hegel’s Idea of Philosophy. USA:
Fordham University Press, 1983.
10
Ibid. 1
the idea of Spirit, but in order for us to understand the sign of times, we must understand first the

idea of history.

Now from my understanding of these ideas; I think Hegel wanted to prove to us that reason

is an important part of our nature, not just as humans but even in the things around us contains

some kind of reason. But I do see some problems regarding his idea of reason, why is that? since

Hegel did say that reason is our only access to achieve the freedom of thought, and he also

mentioned that history is already present but is waiting to be unraveled by the help of reason; does

that make the whole idea of having the freedom of thought thrown into the pile of doubt? Possibly,

since the very existence of “history waiting to be unraveled” eliminates the possibility of us having

to think for ourselves. It is like saying you have the freedom to choose, but is given options, which

I think is not complete freedom at all. I might be wrong about this, since I don’t have the complete

information of Hegel with this point, so ill just mention this notion as an open-ended question.

Another thing that I want to clarify in this paper is, Hegel’s remark about the universal in

relation to Spirit, and how it is not in a hurry. If we were to go back to the idea of how we are

capable of having reason, and with that, helps us to further progress into a certain part of history

that is waiting to be revealed; this is the scenario in which Hegel says, is the spirit, the progression

of human understanding. The idea of it being “not in a hurry” simply implies that, despite of the

Spirit’s capability to hold time, it must still rely on our capability to progress, making the concept

of universal and spirit not being in a hurry.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. “history,” accessed March 09, 2020,

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/history.

Walsh, W. H. "Hegel on the History of Philosophy." History and Theory 5 (1965): 67-82.

Accessed March 11, 2020. doi:10.2307/2504119.

Hegel, GWF. “Introduction to the History of Philosophy,” in Quentin Lauer, S. J., Hegel’s Idea

of Philosophy. USA: Fordham University Press, 1983.

Redding, Paul. George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Edited by Edward N. Zalta. 2020.

https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2020/entries/hegel

Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. “a sign of the times,” accessed March 10, 2020,

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/a%20sign%20of%20the%20times.
HEGEL’S IMPLICATION OF FORCE TO THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF SPIRIT

BEA CLARISSE E. GUMAMIT

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 In my previous essay, I have discussed the basic ideas on what the history of philosophy

is, the idea of Spirit, the freedom of thought and the sign of times. With that given information we

can now go on to Hegel’s implication of force with the phenomenology of Spirit. The French

revolution decisively shaped Hegel’s life and thought, with that, implicates how he reasoned this

in relation to the application of force and spirit. 11 As we know by now, Hegel is a man of reason,

a person who will follow the line of rationality in order to arrive at a certain telos, whatever the

cost may be. Because of this we may perceive him as someone who is siding with his enemies (the

French), but despite these accusations, this was what he believed as “essential” to the progress of

human spirit in history.

Hegel understood the role of Jacobin, as not entirely retrogressive, but progressive and

important to further develop human freedom or the human spirit in history.12 As you can see, Hegel

took a more hostile approach to this ideology, since it is clear for him that, in order for the idea of

freedom to become flesh, the concept of spirit is required to undergo a certain force to create the

conditions for freedom.13 Some might say that this idea of force as imposed by Hegel- as tyrannical

or chaotic, but we should also understand his position regarding this matter. You see, Hegel

believes that in order for freedom to arise or for us to be unified, there must first be a fearful

force.14fear or terror, is not a negative notion for Hegel, as long as it is viewed with the scale of

reason.15 In defense to this tyrannical approach (especially during the French revolution) he claims

that, rational tyranny should be perceived as an important aspect, in attaining the emancipatory

telos. In other words, these hostile notions are needed to achieve the human freedom that we need,

11
Fluss, H. “Hegel on Bastille Day,” Jacobin Magazine, https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/07/hegel-bastille-day-
burke-french-revolution
12
Ibid, 2.
13
Ibid,3.
14
Ibid.
15
Ibid.
but must also be used for a certain span of time only.16 What Hegel is trying to prove to us is that

war, chaos, cannons and bodies are necessities to further progress our standing in history.17 Since

the main goal of this is to attain a certain point of history in which we can say as “telos”, situations

like this serves as a sign of time and a progressive point in slowly unraveling history.

I personally view Hegel’s concept of force with spirit, similarly to Kant’s notion of the

Sublime (but not entirely). Why is this? Mainly because they both look at the negative aspects of

events as something or an opportunity that can provide a beautiful or a good outcome.18 Like for

example; how a volcanic eruption be devastating at first, yet bear a positive outcome in fertilizing

soil resulting in rich crop fields, or in Hegel’s account war can result into freedom, the up rise of

state and the unity of people. Aside from the given scenario, both of them should be viewed

differently because of their differences in application.

Now before ending this essay, where do I stand in this idealism? I do think that Hegel’s

point is valid and relevant, in such an extent to which whoever imposes this kind of idealism should

handle it with complete caution. Since philosophies like “Legalism” impose a tyrannical approach

to ruling that becomes unnecessary, because of their desire to make the people ignorant and deprive

them of their rights.19 Defeats the purpose of Hegel’s idealism in imposing rationality, because

humanity will become irrational and deprives them of their freedom of thought, resulting with us

not finding the Spirit in History. So, Hegel’s Philosophy is believable only to the extent of which

16
Fluss, H. “Hegel on Bastille Day,” Jacobin Magazine, https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/07/hegel-bastille-day-
burke-french-revolution
17
Ibid, 3.
18
Guyer, Paul, ed. Kant's Critique of the Power of Judgement: Critical Essays. United Kingdom: Rowman &
Littlefield Publishers Inc., 2003.

19
Pines, Yuri. Legalism in Chinese Philosophy . Edited by Edward N. Zalta. 2014.
https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2018/entries/chinese-legalism/
the ruler is rational and is capable of liberating, other than that can spell chaos (not in Hegel’s idea)

for humanity and unraveling the spirit of history.

At the end of the day Hegel does deserve that toast (which was mentioned at the end of the

discussion, in one of my references) made by Nietzsche…

Let’s toast Hegel, the philosopher of the French revolution.20

20
Fluss, H. “Hegel on Bastille Day,” Jacobin Magazine, https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/07/hegel-bastille-day-
burke-french-revolution.
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Fluss, H. “Hegel on Bastille Day,” Jacobin Magazine,

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/07/hegel-bastille-day-burke-french-revolution

Guyer, Paul, ed. Kant's Critique of the Power of Judgement: Critical Essays. United Kingdom:

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc., 2003.

Pines, Yuri. Legalism in Chinese Philosophy. Edited by Edward N. Zalta. 2014.

https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2018/entries/chinese-legalism/