The Philosophy of HistoryPurchase 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... |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 8 | |
Geographical Basis of History | 79 |
CLASSIFICATION OF HISTORIC DATA | 103 |
Principle of the Oriental World III | 109 |
THE GREEK WORLD | 223 |
Fall of the Greek Spirit | 275 |
PAGE | 278 |
THE GERMAN WORLD | 341 |
The Elements of the Christian German World | 347 |
The Middle Ages | 366 |
The Modern Time | 412 |
The Éclaircissement and Revolution | 438 |
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absolute abstract ancient antithesis appears Asia Athens attained basis become belongs Brahm Brahmins character Charlemagne China Chinese Christ Christian Church conception concrete condition connection consciousness constitution contrary culture distinction Divine Egypt Egyptians element Emperor Empire essence essential exhibited existence external fact feudal Freedom German Greece Greek hand Herodotus Hindoo History honor human idea independent India individual infinite interest involves Italy King kingdom land latter laws ligion limited Livy manifest Medes ment merely moral nations Nature object occupied origin Ormuzd Osiris particular passions patricians peculiar period Persian Persian Empire personality Philosophy plebeians plebs political position possession present princes principle pure question realization recognized regarded relation religion religious respect Roman Roman Empire Rome Second Punic War secular sensuous side soul sovereignty Sparta sphere Spirit subjective substantial things thought Thucydides tion truth unity universal virtue volition whole worship
Popular passages
Page 20 - The History of the world is none other than the progress of the consciousness of Freedom ; a progress whose development according to the necessity of its nature, it is our business to investigate.
Page 33 - No man is a hero to his valet-de-chambre," is a wellknown proverb; I have added— and Goethe repeated it ten years later— "but not because the former is no hero, but because the latter is a valet.
Page 39 - State, which is that form of reality in which the individual has and enjoys his freedom; but on the condition of his recognizing, believing in, and willing that which is common to the Whole.
Page 22 - But even regarding History as the slaughter-bench at which the happiness of peoples, the wisdom of States, and the virtue of individuals have been victimised — the question involuntarily arises — to what principle, to what final aim these enormous sacrifices have been offered.
Page 20 - The destiny of the spiritual world, and — since this is the substantial world, while the physical remains subordinate to it, or, in the language of speculation, has no truth as against the spiritual — the final cause of the world at large we allege to be the consciousness of its own freedom on the part of Spirit, and, ipso facto, the reality of that freedom.