The Philosophy of History

Summary

The Philosophy of History (Vorlesungen über die Philosophie der Geschichte) is the posthumous edition of the lectures on the philosophy of world history that G. W. F. Hegel gave five times at the University of Berlin between the winter of 1822-23 and that of 1830-31. Hegel never wrote it as a book. After his death, his student Eduard Gans assembled the text from Hegel's own manuscripts and students' notebooks and published it in 1837 in the collected works; Hegel's son Karl revised it in 1840, and J. Sibree's English translation of that edition appeared in London in 1857. Sibree's translation is in the public domain, but the library does not yet hold a clean digital text, so this record gives a summary and study guide only and does not quote the work. The long Introduction distinguishes three ways of writing history: original history, written by those who lived through events, like Herodotus and Thucydides; reflective history, which surveys the past from a later standpoint and draws lessons from it; and philosophical history, which Hegel undertakes. Its one presupposition, he says, is that Reason governs the world, so that world history is a rational process. The essence of Spirit is freedom, and history is the progress of the consciousness of freedom. Hegel summarizes this in a famous formula: the Oriental world knew that one is free, the Greek and Roman world that some are free, and the Germanic world, under Christianity, that all are free as human beings. Spirit works through human passions and interests, and especially through world-historical individuals such as Alexander, Caesar and Napoleon, who pursue their own aims while carrying out a larger purpose; Hegel calls this the cunning of reason. The State is the form in which freedom becomes actual. A section on the geographical basis of history surveys the continents and their climates. The main body follows this scheme across four worlds. The Oriental World covers China, India, Persia, with Judea and Egypt treated as transitional. The Greek World describes the beautiful individuality of the city-state, Greek religion and art, Athens and Sparta, the Peloponnesian War and Alexander. The Roman World treats Rome's abstract universality, law and empire, the inner life of the Stoics and Epicureans, and the appearance of Christianity, which Hegel regards as the decisive event in which the infinite worth of every person became known. The Germanic World runs from the migrations of the Germanic peoples and the rise of Islam, through Charlemagne, feudalism, the Church and the Crusades, to the Reformation, which Hegel calls the all-enlightening sun, and finally to the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. The lectures end by describing world history as the development and realization of Spirit, which Hegel calls the true theodicy, the justification of God in history.

Plot or Argument

• Introduction: three kinds of history

  Original history, written by eyewitnesses within their own age; reflective history, from a later vantage, including pragmatic and critical history; and philosophical history, which seeks the rational meaning of the whole.

• Introduction: Reason, Spirit and freedom

  Reason governs the world; the nature of Spirit is freedom; world history is the progress of the consciousness of freedom, a progress Hegel traces from one, to some, to all being known as free.

• Introduction: passions, heroes and the State

  Spirit realizes itself through human passions and through world-historical individuals whose private aims serve a larger end; the State is the actual form of freedom; a survey of geography sets the stage.

• Part I: The Oriental World

  China and India as relatively static orders under a single ruler or a caste system; Persia as the first empire to pass away and give place to another, with Judea's religion of the one God and Egypt's riddle as transitions.

• Part II: The Greek World

  The free, beautiful individuality of the Greek city, its gods, festivals and art; the political life of Athens and Sparta; decline through the Peloponnesian War and the conquests of Alexander.

• Part III: The Roman World

  Rome's discipline, law and abstract state; republic and empire; the retreat into Stoic and Epicurean inwardness; and the birth of Christianity in the fullness of time.

• Part IV: The Germanic World to the Middle Ages

  The Germanic migrations, Islam's rapid rise, Charlemagne's empire, feudalism and the medieval Church, and the Crusades.

• Part IV: Reformation, Enlightenment and Revolution

  Luther's Reformation, the growth of the modern state, the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, after which Hegel describes history as the true theodicy.

Lessons

• Three ways to write history

  Hegel's Introduction distinguishes historians who write from inside events, those who survey the past to draw lessons, and the philosopher who seeks the meaning of the whole. The distinction is still useful for reading Herodotus, Gibbon or a modern textbook.

  • What does Hegel admire in original historians like Thucydides?
  • Why does he doubt that nations learn practical lessons from history?
  • Which kind of history do you most often read?

• History as the progress of freedom

  Hegel's master idea is that history is the story of human beings coming to know and realize their freedom, from one ruler, to a free citizen class, to all persons. He places the turning point in Christianity's teaching that each person has infinite worth before God.

  • How does Hegel describe freedom in the Oriental, Greek and Germanic worlds?
  • Why does he give Christianity and the Reformation such importance?
  • Is freedom the right measure for the whole of history?

• Great individuals and larger purposes

  Hegel says nothing great is accomplished without passion, and that world-historical individuals like Caesar pursue their own ambitions while carrying forward what their age requires. He calls this the cunning of reason, which uses the passions for ends their bearers do not see.

  • What makes someone a world-historical individual for Hegel?
  • Does Hegel excuse the crimes of great men, or simply describe their effects?
  • How does the cunning of reason compare with the Christian doctrine of providence?

Context

Hegel lectured in Prussian Berlin in the decades after the Napoleonic Wars, when the French Revolution, Napoleon's empire and the restoration of monarchies had made the meaning of history a pressing question. He drew on the Enlightenment universal histories of Voltaire, Herder and Kant, on the new Romantic interest in national spirit, and on Lutheran theology, and he wrote at a time when European scholars were translating Chinese and Sanskrit sources for the first time.

Composition

Hegel gave the course five times, in the winter semesters 1822-23, 1824-25, 1826-27, 1828-29 and 1830-31, revising and expanding the Introduction each time. Eduard Gans edited the lectures from Hegel's manuscripts and students' notes for the collected works in 1837; Karl Hegel's revised second edition (1840) is the basis of J. Sibree's English translation (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1857). Modern scholars have published critical editions that separate Hegel's own manuscripts from the different years' student notes, and the introduction alone is often printed as Reason in History.

Reception

The lectures became the most widely read of Hegel's works and shaped the 19th-century debate about progress. Marx and Engels adopted Hegel's dialectical scheme while replacing Spirit with material and economic forces; Kierkegaard objected that the system had no room for the single individual; Christian readers have disagreed over whether Hegel's history is a philosophical account of providence or a replacement for it. Historians have criticized his treatment of Asia and his exclusion of Africa and the Americas from world history proper as resting on the limited sources of his day, while his claim that history has a direction and culminates in freedom was revived in later debates about the end of history.

Comparisons

• hegel-philosophy-of-right

  The Philosophy of Right ends with a brief sketch of world history and the four realms; the lectures expand that sketch, and both treat the State as the actual form of freedom.

• city-of-god

  Augustine's two cities read history as the work of providence and refuse to identify God's kingdom with any earthly power; Hegel's history as theodicy finds Reason and freedom realized in the course of states themselves.

• the-histories

  Hegel names Herodotus as a model of original history, written from within the world it describes, which he contrasts with his own philosophical history.

• gibbon-decline-and-fall-selections

  Gibbon's reflective history of Rome's fall, with its critical view of Christianity's role, makes a pointed contrast with Hegel's account of Christianity as the turning point in the consciousness of freedom.

• the-communist-manifesto

  Marx and Engels keep Hegel's idea of history moving through conflict toward freedom but locate the motor in class struggle and modes of production.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The three kinds of history at the start of the Introduction and where Hegel places Herodotus and Thucydides.
• The scheme of freedom known by one, by some and by all, and how each of the four worlds fits it.
• The discussion of passions and world-historical individuals such as Caesar.
• The treatment of the appearance of Christianity at the end of the Roman World.
• The Reformation and the French Revolution near the end, and the closing language of theodicy.

Key terms and names

Spirit (Geist)

Hegel's term for mind or reason as it comes to know itself in human history, culture, religion and the State.

Freedom

For Hegel the essence of Spirit; history is the progress of the consciousness of freedom, which becomes real in rational institutions.

World-historical individual

A person like Alexander, Caesar or Napoleon whose own aims coincide with the next step that history requires.

Cunning of reason

Hegel's phrase for the way Reason uses individuals' passions to accomplish ends they do not intend.

Theodicy

A justification of God's ways in the face of evil; Hegel describes his philosophy of history as the true theodicy.

Sibree translation

J. Sibree's English version of 1857, made from the 1840 German edition; public domain but not stored in the library.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension What are Hegel's three kinds of history, and which does he undertake?
2. Comprehension What does Hegel say each of the Oriental, Greek and Roman, and Germanic worlds knew about freedom?
3. Comprehension What role does Hegel give to the State in the realization of freedom?
4. Interpretation Why does Hegel say that nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion?
5. Interpretation How does the cunning of reason differ from the providence Augustine describes in the City of God?
6. Interpretation Why does Hegel treat the Reformation as so decisive for modern freedom?
7. Big Question Does history have a direction, and if so, can anyone living within it know what it is?

Faith Connections

• Galatians 4:4 (Scripture)

  Paul's phrase the fullness of the time names the moment of Christ's coming; Hegel places the appearance of Christianity at the culmination of the Roman World as the decisive turn in history.

• Galatians 3:28 (Scripture)

  There is neither bond nor free, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus: Hegel's claim that Christianity first taught that all are free as human beings echoes this verse.

• Daniel 2 (Scripture)

  Nebuchadnezzar's dream of four kingdoms followed by a kingdom not made with hands is an ancient scheme of world empires to set beside Hegel's four worlds.

• Augustine, City of God XIX and XXII (Church Fathers)

  Augustine sees the end of history in the heavenly city beyond time; comparing him with Hegel raises the question whether God's purposes are fulfilled within history or beyond it.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Reason governs the world; the essence of Spirit is freedom; therefore world history is the progress of the consciousness of freedom, realized step by step in the Oriental, Greek, Roman and Germanic worlds and made actual in the rational State, so that the history of the world is the justification of God.

Rhetorical device: triadic scheme. In the Introduction Hegel compresses all history into a three-step formula of freedom known by one, by some and by all, which then organizes the four parts of the lectures.

Debate: Resolved: that history shows steady progress in human freedom.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Hegel calls his philosophy of history a theodicy. Explain what he means, using his account of passions, world-historical individuals and the cunning of reason, and evaluate whether it answers the problem of suffering in history.

Comparison with City of God: Compare Augustine's two cities with Hegel's progress of freedom: where does each locate the meaning of history, and what does each say about earthly states?

Creative Prompts

• Essay

  Explain Hegel's three kinds of history, then classify two historical works you have read, such as Herodotus and Gibbon, and say what each kind can and cannot show.

• Classroom

  Draw a timeline of Hegel's four worlds and mark for each what he says about who is known to be free, then discuss which judgments students would challenge.

• Dialogue

  Write a conversation between Augustine and Hegel on whether the course of history reveals God's purpose, and how anyone could know.

Further Reading

• Reason in History, G. W. F. Hegel

  Robert S. Hartman's English translation of the Introduction alone.

• Hegel: A Biography, Terry Pinkard

  Detailed modern life of Hegel and his Berlin years.

• Hegel, Charles Taylor

  Comprehensive study of Hegel's philosophy, including the philosophy of history.

• Meaning in History, Karl Löwith

  Argues that modern philosophies of history, Hegel's among them, transform the Christian theology of history.