began Alberto. “One could almost say he developed with the German spirit as
it gradually evolved in Germany. He was born in Stuttgart in 1770, and began
to study theology in Tubingen at the age of eighteen. Beginning in 1799, he
worked with Schelling in Jena during the time when the Romantic Movement
was experiencing its most explosive growth. After a period as assistant
professor in Jena he became a professor in Heidelberg, the center of German
National Romanticism. In 1818 he was appointed professor in Berlin, just at
the time when the city was becoming the spiritual center of Europe. He died of
cholera in 1831, but not before ‘He-gelianism’ had gained an enormous
following at nearly all the universities in Germany.”
“So he covered a lot of ground.”
“Yes, and so did his philosophy. Hegel united and developed almost all
the ideas that had surfaced in the Romantic period. But he was sharply critical
of many of the Romantics, including Schelling.”
“What was it he criticized?”
“Schelling as well as other Romantics had said that the deepest
meaning of life lay in what they called the ‘world spirit.’ Hegel also uses the
term ‘world spirit,’ but in a new sense. When Hegel talks of ‘world spirit’ or
‘world reason,’ he means the sum of human utterances, because only man
has a ‘spirit.’
“In this sense, he can speak of the progress of world spirit throughout
history. However, we must never forget that he is referring to human life,
human thought, and human culture.”
“That makes this spirit much less spooky. It is not lying in wait anymore
like a ‘slumbering intelligence’ in rocks and trees.”
“Now, you remember that Kant had talked about something he called
‘das Ding an sich.’ Although he denied that man could have any clear
cognition of the innermost secrets of nature, he admitted that there exists a
kind of unattainable ‘truth.’ Hegel said that ‘truth is subjective/ thus rejecting
the existence of any ‘truth’ above or beyond human reason. All knowledge is
human knowledge, he said.”
“He had to get the philosophers down to earth again, right?”
“Yes, perhaps you could say that. However, Hegel’s philosophy was so
all-embracing and diversified that for present purposes we shall content
ourselves with highlighting some of the main aspects. It is actually doubtful
whether one can say that Hegel had his own ‘philosophy’ at all. What is
usually known as Hegel’s philosophy is mainly a method for understanding
the progress of history. Hegel’s philosophy teaches us nothing about the inner
nature of life, but it can teach us to think productively.”
“That’s not unimportant.”
“All the philosophical systems before Hegel had had one thing in
common, namely, the attempt to set up eternal criteria for what man can know
about the world. This was true of Descartes, Spinoza, Hume, and Kant. Each
and every one had tried to investigate the basis of human cognition. But they
had all made pronouncements on the timeless factor of human knowledge of
the world.”
“Isn’t that a philosopher’s job?”
“Hegel did not believe it was possible. He believed that the basis of
human cognition changed from one generation to the next. There were
therefore no ‘eternal truths/ no timeless reason. The only fixed point