The Philosopher Hegel

An intellectual offspring of Kant, Hegel emerges with clarity to illuminate our thinking on thinking. Let’s not waste time and enter into his ideas.

Logic

In his work baring the same name, Hegel sought not to determine the methods of reasoning, but the concepts used in reasoning. He reveals the Relation: every idea is only understood as an idea relating to another — such as all the words used in describing his Relation. The most important of these relations is the notion of contrast and opposition. Every condition or thought leads to an opposite, which unites to form a higher complex whole. Knowledge of opposites is one. This is what Hegel calls the Dialectical movement.

Every thought is a dialectical movement of unity to diversity to diversity in tounity. Character and conduct unify into ethics. The multiplicity of individuals and their freedom of thought unite into a state.

Hegel on Struggle and Pain

Here is Will Durant’s summary of Hegel on strife in life:

“Struggle is the law of growth; character is built in the storm and stress of the world; and a man reaches his full height only through compulsions, responsibilities, and suffering. Even pain has its rationale; it is a sign of life and a stimulus to reconstruction.”¹

Hegel on History

His thoughts on struggle follow that of history, for what is history if not for the struggle of humans for survival.

“History is made only in those periods in which the contradictions of reality are being resolved by growth, as the hesitations and awkwardness of youth pass into the ease and order of maturity. History is a dialectical movement, almost a series of revolutions, in which people after people are instruments of the Absolute (the contrasting ideas combining into one).”²

He sees everything as a dialectical movement where when ideas to construct a higher order demand growth, strife of opposites is required. Do you agree?

Reference

Durant, Will. The Story of Philosophy.p.385