EVERY READER OF HEGEL’S PHILOSOPHY perceives how heavily his thought is influenced by his understanding of history. With only slightly more attention, one learns that, for Hegel, history is a progressive force, resulting in the eventual existence of ever more rational human beings and human societies. Merging ancient teleology with modern historicism, he argues that while human nature, understood as ourtelos,or proper end, remains ultimately the same, it is a nature that is only truly fulfilled through the course of history’s progression. As a result, people in different historical periods have different understandings of their purposes and ends;...

THE STORY OFANTIGONEIS A FAMILIAR PIECE OF WESTERN literature and needs little introduction. Denied his turn at the throne of Thebes by his brother, Eteocles, Polynices, with the help of the Argives, wages war on his native city. In battle the two brothers kill each other.Antigoneopens after Creon, the new king and the brothers’ uncle, issues a proclamation that grants Eteocles the burial of a hero but denies Polynices any burial rights. Antigone, the sister of the two dead men, cannot allow this injustice to be perpetrated against her brother. Despite the king’s proclamation, she buries...

HEGEL’S GOAL IN THEPHENOMENOLOGY OF SPIRITis to depict the “manifestation of Spirit” in human consciousness and the corresponding development of our political and civil institutions. This progress is complete when what we know corresponds with what there is or when the knowledge of the subject perfectly reflects the true objective order. In other words, his goal is to raise philosophy from a mere “love of knowledge” to “actual knowing” or to raise knowledge to the level of science.¹

At the moment of absolute knowing, we will have achieved what Hegel defines as self-consciousness: our knowledge will mirror the...

AS WE HAVE SEEN, THE ETHICAL ORDER OF ANCIENT GREECE fails, according to Hegel, because it does not adequately recognize the right of freedom in the objective existence of human beings. The Divine is by its nature free, and inasmuch as the nature of humans corresponds with the divine substance, this freedom is our ultimate end as well. As history moves forward and the nature of Spirit progressively unfolds, humanity recognizes this as its nature and practically realizes it by means of free institutions. As a result, Spirit is fully objectified in the created order and our historical progression is...

While Hegel notes that the modern world is distinct inasmuch as it recognizes the freedom that is intrinsic to all its members, the actualization of this freedom is not immediate. InThe Philosophy of Righthe presents an account of how freedom has developed in his era. As we have seen, he believes that the modern state overcomes the tragic flaw of the ancient world by integrating its citizens’ interests and desires into its own foundation. Individuals thereby learn to broaden their interests to include those of the political community. Although Hegel does not explicitly state that this progression is...

THE MOVEMENT OF HISTORY AS PORTRAYED BY HEGEL results in societies in which human freedom is progressively recognized and realized. As we have seen, however, this political freedom is not the unlimited ability to do what we want but includes a shaping or education of our desires. Political freedom, according to Hegel, is only achieved when we, finding our interests protected within the state, also discover our fulfillment in serving the political community; this freedom requires both a state that recognizes and defends our liberty and individuals who see that their liberty is satisfied when they act for the good...