[Question 2]
Explain
this passage in terms of Hegel's Idea of "Universal History" as an
internally related process of "bildung' whose end or "telos' is
"freedom".
The remark next in order is, that each particular National genius is to be treated as only One Individual in the process of Universal History. For that history is the exhibition of the divine, absolute development of Spirit in its highest forms, - that gradation by which it attains its truth and consciousness of itself. The forms which these grades of progress assume are the characteristic "National Spirits" of History; the peculiar tenor of their moral life, of their Government, their Art, Religion, and Science. To realise these grades is the boundless impulse of the World-Spirit - the goal of its irresistible urging; for this division into organic members, and the full development of each, is its Idea. - Universal History is exclusively occupied with showing how Spirit comes to a recognition and adoption of the Truth: the dawn of knowledge appears; it begins to discover salient principles, and at last it arrives at full consciousness" (Hegel, Philosophy of History, p.53)
¡°This
Spirit of a People is a determinate and particular Spirit, and
is, as just stated, further modified by the degree of its historical
development. This Spirit, then, constitutes the basis and substance of those
other forms of a nation's consciousness, which have been noticed. For Spirit in
its self-consciousness must become a object of contemplation to itself, and
objectivity involves, in the first instance, the rise of differences which make
up a total of distinct spheres of objective spirit; in the same way as the Soul
exists only as the complex of its faculties, which in their form of
concentration in a simple unity produce that Soul. It is thus One
Individuality which, presented in its essence as God, is honoured and
enjoyed in Religion; which is exhibited as an object of sensuous
contemplation in Art; and is apprehended as an intellectual conception
in Philosophy. In virtue of the original identity of their essence,
purport, and object, these various forms are inseparably united with the Spirit
of the State. Only in connection with this particular religion can this
particular political constitution exist; just as in such or such a State, such
or such a Philosophy or order of Art.¡± (Hegel, PH, p.53)
For
Hegel, Universal History is the process by which the Spirit becomes conscious of
its essence as Freedom and actualizes the Idea of Freedom by its own activities.
The subject of history is the Spirit. What makes man distinctive from other
animals, for Hegel, is the capacity of thinking, i.e. activity of the Spirit.
While the body of man disappears on death, his/her Spirit is reserved with
adding ¡°the depth of the present¡±(Ibid. p.79). The idea that the body and
the spirit are separable, and the former is the instrument of accomplishing the
purpose of the latter can be traced back to the metaphysical concept of
Aristotle. For Hegel, therefore, that the subject of history is the Spirit is
the metaphysical expression that the subject of history is man.
How
can the Spirit actualize its potential essence and become conscious of
itself?-by its own activity. The Spirit is an existence who does objective
activity. The objective activity is a purposeful and conscious activity, which
puts its purpose into external things and appropriates them as its own
purposeful contents. By this objectification, the Spirit can be preserved
without loss. And, then, the Spirit can develop into a higher stage through
reflecting the objectified itself. The products of the objective activity are
Government, Law, Religion, Art, Philosophy, Science and so on, and the totality
of them is the State.
By
its particular objective activities proper to its particular natural and
historical environment, each Spirit of Peoples obtains a determinate and
particular individuality in the World history. Each Spirit of Peoples possesses
diverse objective forms united into the Spirit of the State. These objective
forms are Religion, Art, and Philosophy.
Hegel
takes stand against the argument that religion, art and philosophy express
merely subjective psychology, and that these have only subjective value. For
Him, the perfect forms of them are ¡°the essential union of the objective
side-the Idea- and subjective side-the personality that conceives and wills
it¡±(Ibid. p. 49). Religion, Art and Philosophy are not only subjective
expression of feeling, beauty and knowledge of author, but also are objective
and universal expression of a People. For Hegel, Beauty, Feeling, Knowledge have
a rational, cognitive value. For through Religion, Art and Philosophy the
members of a People can mutually recognize their feeling, beauty and knowledge.
Religion, Art and Philosophy are the objective means of communicating each
subjective feeling, intuition and thought of members, and, at the same time, are
the objective manifestation of how feelings, intuitions and thoughts of members
relate each other. Religion, Art and Philosophy are the realization of Freedom
in the sense that they are the means of unifying universality and individuality.
Hegel
deals with the relation of Religion to the political constitution. For him, the
form of the former decides that of the latter. For Hegel, according to the
particularity of the conception of God which constitutes the general basis of a
people¡¯s character¡±(Ibid, p.50), the form of the political constitution
differs. It is similar to the argument of Aristotle that different peoples have
different constitution proper to them. According to Hegel, the empirical
evidence for his argument is found in history. He says, ¡° the Athenian or
Roman State was possible only in connection with the specific form of Heathenism
existing among the respective peoples; just as a Catholic State has a spirit and
constitution different from that of a Protestant one¡±(Ibid, p.51).
Now,
we can examine the argument of Hegel that in Monarchy and Protestantism, the
Idea of Freedom can be realized, and the dichotomy between the sensuous and
reason can be solved. For this examination, it will seem to be helpful to look
at the analysis of Freud about church and army in his Group Psychology and
the Analysis of the Ego. For His analysis shows the similarity of
development of human mentality, in that an absolutely self-sufficient
narcissistic ego becomes separated into the ego and the ego ideal, which is an
unconscious and repressing part, according to its relations with the strangeness
of external objects. According to Freud, Church and army share a common
character that all their members should be loved in the same way by one person,
who is a commander in army, or Christ in Church. Also, this character applies to
Hegel¡¯s Monarchy and Protestantism in that in the front of King and God all
men are equal. According to Freud, the tie to bind the members of the two group
is established when they put the same object (a commander or Chirst) in place of
their ego ideal. However, within the mental existence of the members, still
exists the separated status between the ego and the ego ideal. For Hegel, the
realization of the Idea of Freedom establishes the unity of the ego and the ego
ideal in human nature. The Analysis of Freud seems to suggest us that Monarchy
and Protestantism is not the ideal form in which the dichotomy is resolved.
"The
remark next in order is, that each particular National genius is to be treated
as only One Individual in the process of Universal History. For that history is
the exhibition of the divine, absolute development of Spirit in its highest
forms, - that gradation by which it attains its truth and consciousness of
itself. The forms which these grades of progress assume are the characteristic
"National Spirits" of History; the peculiar tenor of their moral life,
of their Government, their Art, Religion, and Science. To realise these grades
is the boundless impulse of the World-Spirit - the goal of its irresistible
urging; for this division into organic members, and the full development of
each, is its Idea. - Universal History is exclusively occupied with showing how
Spirit comes to a recognition and adoption of the Truth: the dawn of knowledge
appears; it begins to discover salient principles, and at last it arrives at
full consciousness"(Ibid. p.53).
The
Idea of World-Spirit is that the full development of each particular national
Spirit; not uniform and indiscriminate development but differentiated and
peculiar one. Each particular national Spirit assumes its own distinctive
Morality, Government, Art, Religion, and Science. In the highest stage of
development, Spirit reaches to the absolute Truth and the realization of its
essence.
The
philosophy of Hegel unifies ontology and epistemology. According to the
philosophy of Hegel, the process toward perfecting existence is nothing but that
toward recognizing the Truth. In order to realizing its essence and be conscious
of itself, Spirit must make itself objective and contemplate it. Through this
objectification and contemplation, Spirit destroys the old form of its existence
and its knowledge about the world, which is nothing but objectified Spirit, and
develops into a new form of existence and knowledge. Also historical materialism
of Marx inherits his dialectical relation between objective activities or
existence and knowledge. The second thesis in Marx¡¯s Theses on Feuerbach
that ¡°objective truth is not a question of theory but is a practical
question¡± shows the view of Marx on this dialectic relation. For Hegel and
Marx, objective world, without relation to subjective practice or without
subjective purpose is mere fanciful and imaginary world. The Truth can be
obtains, when subject fully realizes its essence into its own objective world,
and controls it, i.e. when the objective world is full of the purpose of
subject. This relation of subjective practice and knowledge can be found in our
creative actions. For instance, the Incremental method in software engineering
shows us a typical example. At the staring point we make our purpose objective
as a form of software, we cannot draw the whole detail outline and, thus, we
need to make prototype to contemplate. Through contemplating this prototype we
can proceed to more concrete knowledge about our purpose. The Incremental method
repeats the creation and destroys of prototype, and, at last, through the full
realization of our purpose, we can arrive at the full knowledge about the
software.
Works Cited
Hegel, the Philosophy of History (PH), translated by J. Sibree, Prometheus Books, 1991
Karl Marx, The Marx-Engels Reader, Edited by Robert C, Tucker, Second Edition, Norton & Company, 1972
Sigmund Freud, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, the Second Edition, Translated by James Stachey, Norton & Company, 1959
Aristotle, Politics, translated by C.D.C Reeve, Heckett Publishing, 1998