Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (1770-1831) German philosopher often associated with idealism. Hegel is often misunderstood, sometimes charged with forwarding a metaphysical system without providing any real empirical support for his elaborate philosophical constructs. But this kind of critique arguably comes from those who have not taken the time to go to his actual works. In actual fact, Hegel’s work is an ambitious attempt to support theory with actual historical examples. Agree or disagree with Hegel’s theory of history, his work could be taken as scientific. In a nutshell, Hegel sees pure Spirit manifesting itself within a teleological human history. A given moment in history is a necessary but imperfect manifestation of the Infinite Spirit. Historical instances in the material world are progressively surpassed through an ongoing mechanism known as the dialectic. A Christian theological application of the Hegelian dialectic could go as follows: Jesus Christ enters the world as the perfect Son but meets opposition from less than perfect persons existing during the Roman occupation of Israel under the Emperor Tiberius. The “thesis” of the perfect, human Christ is physically destroyed by the “antithesis” of the evilly influenced individuals around him. But Christ’s bodily resurrection and ascension signifies an overcoming and the previous conflict between thesis and antithesis is surpassed. This example is not too far fetched. Indeed, Hegel was a baptized Christian and has been roundly critiqued as a theologian posing as a philosopher, a critique that arguably reveals the reductive, narrow-minded thinking found among some but certainly not all philosophers. The basic schematics of Hegel’s dialectical theorizing had a profound influence on Karl Marx, who adapted it to his own, entirely materialistic theory of history. Hegel’s dialectic also had an effect on Michel Foucault, but as something to be apparently improved upon with a more open-ended, discontinuous view of history. » Counter-discourse, Panentheism, Pantheism, Teleology
Add to this, report errors, suggest edits or voice your opinion by posting a comment
