https://www.cambridgeblog.org/category/philosophy-religion/
Marxism: element is Hegelian.
Philosophy of History: Concrete.
Kant: human reason and desire. Hegel: Greek harmonious. Individual conscious in Protestant.
Concepts embedded in human society. History a process. Dialectic.
Simple harmonious. Socrates: questioning this harmony. They have accepted conventions. He was
corrupting Athenian society. Rise of individual conscience (Anti-thesis). Synthesis (Harmony and
individual conscience).
Complex situation: conflicting elements that break things down. Historical change. Goal: Greater
development of mind towards freedom. Increasing awareness of freedom and our knowledge of
ourselves.
Geist: Mind; Notion of Spirit (Spiritual and religious flavor); Beyond individual mind.
All processes are mental/spiritual. Between Christian and Pantheist.
100% sense of Hegel can’t be made on secular interpretation.
Alienation: Something part of us that seems foreign to us. Unhappy soul: demeans himself vis a vis God.
We are projecting our values on God. We have those parts.
Dialectical Movement: Mind coming to know itself as the ultimate reality. Foreign things a part of itself.
Absolute Knowledge. Absolute Freedom: the mind is able to order the world because world is itself;
order it.
Hegel’s philosophy is total knowledge. Self-knowledge and Freedom. We have been pawns in the game.
Why things happen? Laws of historical process are our minds. When we see that we are free. We see
the rationality of reality. We are free to order it develop it.
What sort of society is it leading towards? Pure reason = French Revolution. Town planner. Hegel:
Rational ordering of London inherent in London and developing them.
No leave for criticism (Liberal objection) for State.
View of freedom is different. Economic; liberal = Free to choose preferences. Radical economist:
manipulation. Are they rational choices? Fulfilling yourself as rational agents (Hegel).
Authoritarian State. It is still a problem: both choices.
Logic is not a matter of form separate from content (Truth without a task). Both add together. Realized
in historical process.
Central concept: Understand the process (Reality as historical process). What is it changing? Geist is
changing. Why is it changing? State of alienation. Pattern of change? Dialectical change. Where is it
handing? Absolute knowledge; organic society.
Difficulty comes from the nature of ideas. Style of philosophy.
Influence in theology, history, law, etc.
Split. Right Hegelians: Prussian state was the organic state. Constitutional Monarchy.
Left Hegelian: Radical (Reason and Desire; bridging the gap). Hegel compromised. Morality and selfinterest.
Karl Marx: young Hegelian. Reality is a historical process. A dialectical change. A goal. Goal is conflictfree society. Until we reach it, we will be alienated.
Happening to material. Equation = x (material in place of the mind). Economic base; Superstructure.
He did not argue for materialism in Philosophical sense. We are not free because of economic forces.
Our own ways of providing for ourselves. Our own things control us. We should control them. Powerful
philosophical vision.
Positive contributions:
History as process. Not timeless entities.
Freedom distinct from liberal notion. Control our own destinies. Our own powers.
Hegel = Nazism; Totalitarianism = Marx.
Ideas were mis embodied. Complete misinterpretation.
Faulty view of human nature. Unity than there actually is. Geist above and beyond individual mind.
Marx: scarcity; individual interests will disappear.
Struggle for wealth (false); Struggle for power and status.