The Philosophies of Georg Hegel and Herbert Spencer
The Philosophy of Georg Wilhelm Hegel (1770-1801)
Metaphysics
Georg Wilhelm Hegel aspired to find a philosophy that would embody all human experiences with the integration of not only science, but also religion, history, art, politics and beyond. Hegel’s metaphysical theory of absolute idealism claimed that reality was the absolute truth of all logic, spirit, and rational ideas encompassing all human experience and knowledge.
He believed that in the history of philosophy, many sought to compete with each other’s thoughts in order to find the one true and universal philosophy. But he also argued that each philosopher’s views were integral to the development and growth of the truth. Hegel’s principles were also founded on historicism; in order to fully understand any aspect of life, one must look past all superficial observations and understand the aspects' history and background.. Hegel’s philosophies attempted to tie in these basic fundamentals with mankind’s unending pursuit for the absolute truth to form a single unified system.
Epistemology
Hegel was influenced by developing biological fundamentals in that organisms were interdependent upon each other and their environment making them all part of a hierarchy in life. He related this to society and human reason by believing that nothing could function in isolation and that everything and everyone was part of a larger whole: the Nation-State. He asserted that an individual’s moral ideas would be identical to that of the Nation-State. Hegel believed in the assimilation of one’s moral ideas and social ethics to the government’s because it incorporated all political, economic, and social aspects of an individual’s culture. Hegel’s philosophy opposed rationalism in that instead of celebrating the independent, individual person, he believed that people had the need to become part of something larger beyond themselves.
Political Philosophy
Hegel believed in the existence of two types of freedom, formal freedom and substantial freedom. Formal freedom was based on an individual’s natural rights to liberty whereas substantial freedom was based on an individual’s ability to coincide their ideals to that of their government. According to Hegel, the latter was the only and t...
... middle of paper ...
... sciences to be firm believers in organicism, the idea that the people were all part of a larger whole, a characteristic found in the hierarchy of all biological organisms. Another similarity they shared were their views that their current society was a compilation of the past and had evolved with the ever-changing needs of society and the individual’s quest for knowledge and truth.
How Hegel and Spencer were different
Hegel and Spencer were also very different in their thoughts and ideologies. They had very opposing views of government and politics. Hegel’s philosophies held the Nation-State above the rights of the individual. He believed the people’s responsibilities were to their government before anything else. Hegel’s ideal government would be elected by the people, and would be appointed or inherited this position. On the other hand, Spencer was a strong defender of the natural rights of the people and believed that the people and their society were mutually dependent. The government’s sole function would be to protect and guard its people and their rights. His thinking emphasized that the society with the most minimal government intervention would be the most prosperous.
Foner focuses, specifically, on how the definition of liberty has been molded over time. He describes how other factors played a role in the change of liberty using three interrelated themes. The first theme, as he describes it, covers the dimensions or meanings of freedom. The dimensions include “political freedom, or the right to participate in public affairs… civil liberties, or rights that individuals can assert against authority…[and] moral or ‘Christian’ ideal of freedom,” the freedom to act morally or ethically good (Foner xvii). It also includes personal freedom or being able to make individual choices free from coercion, and “economic freedom…[which covers how] the kinds of economic relations constitute freedom for… [individual’s working lives]” (Foner xviii). All these dimensions are looked at individually as they play a role in reshaping the definition of freedom or liberty.
This paper will examine the reliability of George Berkeley’s metaphysical theory of Idealism. Berkeley’s Idealism holds that reality is made real by what the mind perceives and that what we perceive to be material is really a collection of immaterial sensations. Idealism is defined as the view “that only mental entities exist, so physical things exist only in the sense that they are perceived” (“Idealism”). Berkeley’s argument of Subjective Idealism is the view that reality consists of one’s mind and its ideas, while Objective Idealism says in addition, a supreme mind produces ideas in the physical world that do not depend on human minds to exist (Velasquez 146). Without Objective Idealism, one can undergo solipsism which is the belief that only one’s self and experiences of the world are real and everything else does not exist (“Solipsism”). Opposing Idealism is the metaphysical view of Materialism which holds that only physical things exist (“Materialism”). This paper will start by examining George Berkeley’s views of Subjective and Objective Idealism and how they apply to reality. Then, the critiques made and supported by Aristotle and Thomas Hobbes against both views of Idealism will be argued. However, these arguments fail to properly examine Berkeley’s Idealism, thus causing the critiques to be based upon misinformation. Although the criticisms pose potential flaws, Berkeley’s Idealism continues to be a major discussion in the metaphysical debate.
In sections 190-193 of Georg Wilhelm Fredrich Hegel’s Phenomenology of Sprit, Hegel looks into the relationship between the lord and the bondsman. In this examination of the relationship, Hegel makes the move to find out what both the lord and bondsman offer to each other in terms of existence and or identity. The formulation that Hegel made in the selected sections is that the bondsman had more to gain in terms of intellectual growth than his lord who becomes intellectually dormant due to the bondsman acting in the likeness of his lord.
“Philosophy is the history of philosophy”-Georg Hegel. Historicism is one of the important pillars of Hegelian philosophy, which attempts to provide insight on human social activities and thought process. According to Hegel, our thoughts and activities are directly influenced, defined and can understood by their history. Despite its perceived appeal in explaining this ultimate declaration, it has been the source of philosophical debate over the years and have been criticized by some philosophers as the hindrance to progress, that has justified relatively contemporary societal disputes. Fundamental faults are pointed out in Hegelian historicism. Philosophical schools such as structuralism and determinism as well as human psychology contradict historicism.
...ational freedom and is the actualization of freedom as it expands, unfolds, and thus creates history. The means that Spirit uses to realize itself is human life, and as we all know, humans have subjective ideas, interests, passions, and spirit of their own. When these passions combine with universal laws, Spirit unfolds and history happens. The union of an entire culture and government is called State, and this is how Spirit actualizes itself in unique forms. Finally, Spirit constantly changes and reinvents itself through time and historical events. As Spirit actualizes itself in a stable State, the natural process then leads to a change of the status-quo, and breakdown occurs. This constant struggle between self-destruction and self-renewal is the way in which Spirit is re-actualized in a new State. According to Hegel, this is the force behind all of human history.
...is an account of the birth of self-consciousness through intersubjectivity or the integration within culture. It is a dialectical interpretation that acts, for Hegel, as a form for perceiving the way in which the self comes to know itself through the other and through historical processes. The master/slave dialectic is an early account of intersubjectivity and also a lack of intersubjectivity because it is not based on equal recognition. Self-consciousness, for Hegel, is attained only through the recognition by another independent self. The human world is a world based on recognition, and the human being has within themselves the desire for recognition from other human beings. Hegel proposes that one cannot become a self-conscious individual without seeing oneself in another, and that each individual bases their existence on a world that is founded upon recognition.
Marx, Karl. "Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy in General." marxists.org. marxists.org, 19/10/2009. Web. 26 Mar 2010. .
In the first stage of his examination of what the sensual might offer in the way of knowledge, Hegel examines the object apprehended by a sensing c...
Kung, Hans. The Incarnation of God: An Introduction to Hegel's Theological Thought As Prolegomena to a Future Christology. T&T Clark, 2001. hard cover.
John Locke (1632-1704) and John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) are two important thinkers of liberty in modern political thought. They have revolutionized the idea of human freedom at their time and have influenced many political thinkers afterwards. Although their important book on human freedom, John Locke’s The Second Treatise of Government (1689) and John Mill’s On Liberty (1859), are separated 170 years, some scholars thinks that they are belonging to the same conceptual tradition, English Liberalism. In this essay, I will elaborate John Locke and John Stuart Mill view on human freedom and try to find the difference between their concept of human freedom despite their similar liberal tradition background.
Both Hobbes and Rousseau have different, even opposing, views on the topic of the natural state of man. These views play a major role in their beliefs and reasoning for why man needs society and government. These beliefs can be easily summarized with Hobbes believing in an inherent selfishness and competition in man, whereas Rousseau’s views on things are far more positive, believing that man is far happier in his natural state, and the root of his corruption is the result of his entrance into society. Rousseau’s theory is based on a state prior to the formation of society and any form of government. Thomas Hobbes, the founding father of political philosophy and who was in great opposition to the natural state of man, emphasizes that all people are selfish and evil; the lack of governmental structure is what results in a state of chaos, only to be resolved by an authority figure.
In his book, Thomas Hobbes argued that freedom is comprised when there are no outer impediments towards a person when engaging in what he desires to do: “Unregulated agent is that one can engage in what he wills and bear as per desire that liberty is absenteeism of outer impediments.” According to this definition, free will is the ability of a person to make a decision without being prevented or obstructed by any part. Another philosopher (Hume) defined freedom- liberty, as power of doing or of not doing, as per the d...
As presented in the Phenomenology of Spirit, the aim of Life is to free itself from confinement "in-itself" and thus to become "for-itself." Not only does Hegel place this unfolding of Life at the very beginning of the dialectical development of self-consciousness; Hegel characterizes self-consciousness itself as a form of Life and even refers us to the development of self-consciousness in the Master/Slave dialectic as an essential moment in the fulfillment of this aim of Life to become 'for-itself.' The following paper delineates this overlooked thread of the dialectic. The central thesis is that each step along the path of self-consciousness' attempt at making the truth of its unity with itself explicit, is simultaneously a step in the realization of the aim of Life: to become 'for-itself.' In the review of the Master/Slave dialectic, it reveals itself that the necessary condition for the fulfillment of Life's aim lies in work. Yet...
Freedom is a human value that has inspired many poets, politicians, spiritual leaders, and philosophers for centuries. Poets have rhapsodized about freedom for centuries. Politicians present the utopian view that a perfect society would be one where we all live in freedom, and spiritual leaders teach that life is a spiritual journey leading the soul to unite with God, thus achieving ultimate freedom and happiness. In addition, we have the philosophers who perceive freedom as an inseparable part of our nature, and spend their lives questioning the concept of freedom and attempting to understand it (Transformative Dialogue, n.d.).
He removes himself from a subjective viewpoint and helps us translate all that we cherish to true meaning. Nagel breaks down the subjective and objective to help us realize what is not actually important and vice versa. Life is meaningful if it is objectively meaningful. He argues that since there is no objective metric of meaningfulness, life is not objectively meaningful. If there are no objective standards in the universe, Nagel, therefore, concludes that life is ultimately meaningless (Nagel 755-62). Nagel also strongly believed that there were certain experiences and characteristics that were beyond human understanding. In his publication “What is it Like to Be a Bat” he tries to express that all though we can imagine what it would be like for us to be a bat we could never think like or be precise about what its really like because we aren’t bats. For example we can try to imagine flying around blind searching for bugs to eat but will never have the same senses or perception as a bat. Another example is that of mans best friend. You can crawl on all fours, eat dog food, and imitate barking to the best of our ability. Unfortunately we have human senses and comprehend as human beings due to years of conditioning. He observed that we can describe any number of phenomenon associated with thinking beings but in any of them consciousness seems to be something that may be there or not. In the same way