Page 179 - DPOL201_WESTERN_POLITICAL_THOUGHT_ENGLISH

Sukanya Das, Lovely Professional University
Kirandeep Singh, Lovely Professional University
Unit 10: George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Unit 10 : George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Notes

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
10.1 Life Sketch
10.2 Importance of Reason
10.3 Philosophy of History
10.4 Philosophy of Right
10.5 Dialectics
10.6 Popper’s Critique
10.7 Summary
10.8 Key–Words
10.9 Review Questions
10.10 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this unit students will be able to :
• Understand the importance of reason
• Comment on philosophy of history and right
• Explain Popper’s critique
• Discuss dialectics.

Introduction
Epoch-making events lead to important political theorizing. One of the finest examples of the co-
relationships between a major event and its tremendous impact on an entire generation in a
country is exemplified by the impact of the French Revolution and German political theorizing for
the coming half a century. The French Revolution had its impact throughout Europe, and
Wordsworth wrote
Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
But to be young was very heaven
George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) and all the other important German thinkers, Kant,
Fichte and Schelling were the children of the French Revolution. Compared to both England and
France, Germany was much more backward and feudal, consisting of more than 300 states loosely
linked to the Holy Roman Empire with leadership provided by Francis I of Austria. It came to an
end when Napoleon defeated this 1000-year-old empire, and subsequently in 1806 defeated another
powerful German state, Prussia. Hegel was a resident of Prussia at the time of the defeat, and in
the normal course the expectation would be that the support and the sympathy of the young
Hegel would be for Prussia. But, surprisingly, his admiration was for Napoleon; he welcomed the
conquests and domination of Napoleon. The admiration for Napoleon was total, for he wrote in a
letter, “The Emperor—this world soul—I saw riding through the city to review his troops, it is
indeed a wonderful feeling to see such an individual who, here concentrated into a single point,
sitting on a horse, reaches out over the world and dominates it”

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