Sunday, July 25, 2021

Reading Hegel Right

Review by Grant Havers, chair of the Department of Philosophy at Trinity Western University, of Leo Strauss on Hegel, edited by Paul Franco, at Modern Age.

"The reasons Christianity triumphed over the paganism of Greco-Roman antiquity and the religions of the East preoccupied Hegel to the end of his life. In the Lectures on the Philosophy of History, delivered at the University of Berlin in the 1820s, Hegel outlined how Christianity actualized an idea of human freedom that was inconceivable to pagan civilizations: 'Eastern nations knew only that one is free; the Greek and Roman world only that some are free; while we [Christians] know that all men absolutely ... are free.'

"One implication of Hegel’s theory of history is that no return to paganism is possible, however much we might admire aspects of the ancient world. Philosophers who seek a return to antiquity must address the challenge of Hegel."

See Hegel, The Philosophy of Right, and The Philosophy of History, in Great Books of the Western World (first edition, 52 Vol., 1952) volume 48, and (second edition, 60 Vol., 1990) volume 43.

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