SOC305 Hegel

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and their definitions from the Hegel lecture notes.

History

The process of human beings becoming what they are. Human nature is the outcome of history. History is the realm of Spirit working itself out and realizing freedom.

Spirit (Geist)

Mind, psyche, culture, collective consciousness. Spirit and the process of its development is the substance of history. Its essence is freedom.

Freedom

The essence of Spirit — self-contained existence, not determined by external forces. True freedom happens when external structures (law, state, rights) become internalized and feel like part of one’s own will.

Human Nature

Not fixed from birth but the outcome of history. Humans become who they are by developing self-consciousness and freedom over time.

Reason

The rational order of the world that guides history. Makes history purposeful and intelligible. The rational is real = through history, rationality becomes instantiated in the social and material world.

Dialectic

A process where two contradictory forces meet and interact to produce a third, integrated resolution. History progresses through the resolution of contradictions.

Stages of History (Who is Free)

1. Oriental World – Only one person (the ruler) is free (despotism). 2. Classical Greece & Rome – Some are free (citizens) but not all (slaves excluded). 3. Germanic/Modern World – All are free in principle; Christianity and constitutional states realize universal freedom.

State

The concrete realization of freedom. History is the history of the state objectifying freedom into a constitution. The state reconciles individual interest and universal good, creating a genuine political community.

Family (Hegel’s View)

Offers affection and unity but lacks freedom.

Civil Society (Hegel’s View)

Provides freedom and individual rights but lacks community or shared ethical life.

State (Hegel’s View)

Reconciles the affection of family and the freedom of civil society, uniting them into a rational political community.

Passion

The subjective aims and desires that motivate action. History advances through passions rather than abstract moral intention.

Cunning of Reason

Reason uses human passions to accomplish universal aims. Individuals may suffer loss or fail personally, but their actions move history toward freedom.

World-Historical Individuals

Great figures like Alexander, Caesar, and Napoleon whose aims embody a universal concept. They often do not know they are fulfilling history’s plan, but they transform institutions and move Spirit to its next stage.

Goal (Endzweck) of History

Spirit’s consciousness of its own freedom and the actualization of that freedom in the world.

Means of History

The ways history moves forward — wars, revolutions, conflict, and passion — not peaceful moral persuasion.

Shape of History

Linear progression toward freedom (contrast with premodern cyclical views).

Hegel’s Idealism

The idea that ideas and Reason drive the development of the material world (rather than material conditions driving ideas).

Enlightenment (Hegel’s View)

Marked a societal revolution — a major step in spreading rationality and freedom, moving toward the realization of Spirit.

Rational as Real

What is rational becomes real over time — history is the rational becoming actual in the social and material world.

Key Formula

History = Spirit’s process of becoming → realizing freedom → actualized in the state.