Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Spirit, and in the History of the World regard everything as only its manifestation, we have, in traversing the past? however extensive its periods?only to do with what is present; for philosophy, as occupying itself with the True, has to do with the eternally fresenL Nothing in the past is lost for it, for the Idea is ever present; Spirit is immortal; with it there is no past, no future, but an essential now. This necessarily implies that the present form of Spirit comprehends within it all earlier steps. These have indeed unfolded themselves in succession independently; but what Spirit is it has always been essentially; distinctions are only the development of this essential nature. The life of the ever present Spirit is a circle of progressive embodiments, which looked at in one aspect still exist beside each other, and only as looked at from another point of view appear as past. The grades which Spirit seems to have left behind it, it still possesses in the depths of its present. GEOGRAPHICAL BASIS OF HISTORY Contrasted with the universality of the moral Whole and with the unity of that individuality which is its active principle, the natural connecticm that helps to produce the Spirit of a People, appears an extrinsic element; but inasmuch as we must regard it as the ground on which that Spirit plays its part, it is an essential and necessary basis. We began with the assertion that, in the History of the World, the Idea of Spirit appears in its actual embodiment as a series of external forms, each one of which declares itself as an actually existing people. This existence falls under the category of Time as well as Space, in the way of natural existence; and the special principle, which every world-historical people embodies, has this principle at the same time as a nat...

". . . eminently readable . . . admirably picks up the spirit of what Hegel is saying. . . . more readable and accurate than Hartmann's, and it trans­lates a more readable text than does Nisbet's. It includes (as Hartmann's does not) an excerpt, which serves as chapter five, from 'The Geo­graphical Basis of History' (particularly interesting for what it says of America), and a brief chapter six, entitled 'The Division of History.' The volume closes with an appendix, translating §§341–360 of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right and deals directly with the very concept of 'World History.' It constitutes a big help in coming to grips with what Hegel means by 'Spirit.'" —Quentin Lauer, SJ, Fordham University, in International Philosophical Quarterly

A new 2023 Translation with Afterword of Hegel's Monumental work Lectures on the Philosophy of world-history (1770–1831) Hegel's "Lectures on the Philosophy of World History" span his teaching career and provide a sweeping overview of world history from a philosophical perspective. Hegel posits that history is a rational process where the World Spirit actualizes itself through the actions of nations and individuals. He emphasizes the importance of freedom as the driving force behind historical development, asserting that each epoch brings humanity closer to realizing universal freedom.

This introduction to Hegel's writings is an ideal starting point for understanding his philosophical system and his views on the nature of history. It assesses the continuing relevance of Hegel's work to contemporary philosophy.

This book relates Hegel to preceding and succeeding political philosophers. The Hegelian notion of the interdependence of political philosophy and its history is demonstrated by the links established between Hegel and his predecessors and successors. Hegel's political theory is illuminated by essays showing its critical assimilation of Plato and Hobbes, and by studies reviewing subsequent critiques of its standpoint by Stirner, Marx and Collingwood. The relevance of Hegel to contemporary political philosophy is highlighted in essays which compare Hegel to Lyotard and Rawls.

History doesn't have to mean only an effort to know the past. It can be instead, according to Kierkegaard, a willful and personal choice regarding the creation of the future. Kierkegaard offers us an amazing new approach to the problem of what is history and who makes it.