In Hegel’s great work, The Philosophy Of History, the German philosopher not only claims that world history has a divine purpose but also that the divine development going on is perfectly rational. Absolute Spirit expresses itself throughout history in a variety of forms. The universal aim of spirit at work in history is human freedom. The oriental world knew only the freedom of one man, as for example the pharaoh in Egypt. The Greek and Roman world knew only the freedom of some men, since slavery was instituted. The Protestant Germanic states of Hegel’s time, the early nineteenth century, finally realize the freedom of all. “The essential being,” Hegel wrote, “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 and enjoys his freedom.” Since Hegel’s time, states in Europe providing a form for the realization of their citizens’ freedom have also been forced tragically to provide armies as a vehicle for their citizens to kill citizens from foreign states in grand battles and two world wars. The history of Europe after Hegel showed clearly that if Absolute Spirit was going to produce human freedom it would have to take some form other than the European nation-state.
Daniel McNeill
Read: The United States of the World by Daniel McNeill
amazon.com/author/graceisall
No comments:
Post a Comment