Hegel - matt geist

I wrote a paper on Hegel for another class and he actually is going to support the other part of my thesis for this class. I actually decide to study Hegel because of a history class I was in. We started talking about philosophers influencing social movements of the 1800s, and I knew Heidegger was greatly influenced by him (who ive studied before) so I was like why not!

Anyway, his words are worthy enough to be reapplied to art.

I was not all that familiar with Hegel before I started reading his works. I didn’t even know that Geist was his big thing! So.. kinda crazy in that regard. But, regardless, the only familiarity I had with Hegel, existed through my knowledge of his influence on Marx and Engles. Hegel had asserted his dialectic for the reasoning behind human history, and marx and engles made communism out of it (in short). Hegel’s dialectic though was how he made sense of the chanign world around him. It is slightly Darwinian arguing that human institutions change through time by either being preserved or annulled. He as well was optimistic in his argument, asserting that regardless of how many mishaps human beings endured, they would enivatbly progress and push forward. Its what we do- we adapt and kick ass.

Hegels establishment of his dialectic though goes hand in hand with his understanding of truth and the absolute. By these means ive come to a better understanding of art in society. Hegel argues, essentially, that Geist, or spirit, is the driving force behind everything. It is always striving for wholeness and thus true. (the two are one in the same for hegel. Truth = whole, whole = truth) So because Spirit is driving us and all things, we are as well seeking these same things (which we totally are).

Now, Hegel also asserts that in human cultures, humans come to terms with understandings of “Truth” through art, philosophy, and religion. He argues that these means are the best examples of the manifestation of Spirit. But alas! They are ever constantly changing and developing. Just as the world always is.

So, in closing, Hegels got some pretty cool stuff to say and is pretty applicable to this class. His work though is just dense, and all, yknow, Germany. Ha.