Abstract
This chapter first provides an overview of the history of the development of Hegel’s Lectures on the Philosophy of World History. A second section is devoted to the systematic location of world history between the objective and absolute spirit. World history, as the labor of the world-spirit, is “elevation to God,” but this must be understood as the development of the consciousness of freedom, insofar the philosophical notion of God is nothing but the fully developed concept of freedom. Section three, examines Hegel’s manuscript of the “Introduction” 1822–1828, where Hegel introduces his historiography, distinguishing between its “original,” “reflected” and “philosophical” types same. A fourth section turns to Hegel’s last “Introduction,” which considers the relation of history and reason in general. For Hegel, “theodicy” as the reconciliatory consideration of history is the result of the philosophical historiography. This theodicy consists in the fact that history emerges from the free will, and that the will is able to give itself as an idea of a self-consciousness in the complete concept of freedom. The fifth, and final, section deals with Hegel’s speech about the end of history. This end is defined by the telos of world history, the fully completed consciousness of freedom in the philosophical knowing of the absolute idea, but this means that the realization of freedom based on this consciousness is still outstanding.
Draft translation by Anna Moentmann and Marina F. Bykova; translation completed, revised and edited by Kenneth R. Westphal. (Passages from Hegel’s German translated by Westphal are marked as krw.)
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Bibliography
Arndt, Andreas. 2015. Geschichte und Freiheitsbewusstsein: Zur Dialektik der Freiheit bei Hegel und Marx. Berlin: Eule der Minerva Verlag.
Baptist, Gabriella. 2006. “Wirklichkeit.” In Hegel-Lexikon, edited by Paul Cobben, Paul Cruysberghs, Peter Jonkers, and Lu De Vos, 497–499. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
Bast, Rainer A. 1993. Die philosophische Bibliothek. Geschichte und Bibliographie einer philosophischen Textreihe seit 1868. Hamburg: Felix Meiner Verlag.
Jaeschke, Walter. 1996. “Die Geschichtlichkeit der Geschichte.” In Hegel-Jahrbuch 1995, 363–373. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag.
Jaeschke, Walter. 2016. Hegel-Handbuch. Leben – Werk – Schule. Stuttgart und Weimar: J. B. Metzler Verlag.
Rohbeck, Johannes. 1987. Die Fortschrittstheorie der Aufklärung. Französische und englische Geschichtsphilosophie in der zweiten Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts. Frankfurt/M. und New York: Campus.
Rohbeck, Johannes. 2004. Geschichtsphilosophie zur Einführung. Hamburg: Junius Verlag.
Virmond, Wolfgang, ed. 2011. Die Vorlesungen der Berliner Universität 1810–1834 nach dem deutschen und lateinischen Lektionskatalog sowie den Ministerialakten, edited by Wolfgang Virmond. Berlin: Akademie Verlag.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Arndt, A. (2020). Hegel’s Philosophy of World History. In: Bykova, M.F., Westphal, K.R. (eds) The Palgrave Hegel Handbook. Palgrave Handbooks in German Idealism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26597-7_23
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26597-7_23
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-26596-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-26597-7
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)