Hegel believed that freedom was complete self-sufficiency and incorporated this freedom with his concept of Spirit. It is the spirit that Hegel argues is responsible for moving history.
Spirit is most important when trying to understand Hegel’s view of freedom. Hegel was a firm believer in the dialectical method. This method is the idea that everything that exists is the result of a thesis and an antithesis. The production of these two elements is called compound synthesis. It is the synthesis that keeps history moving and the dialectical process ongoing. “World History is the development of the consciousness of freedom” (22). Hegel writes that the reason for this process is that the Spirit can maintain its freedom. As history progresses, the idea of freedom is discussed.
Hegel has a different view of good and evil than most of his time. The church believed that good and bad were based on morals and values, which are in life. Religion was very important in Europe, but Hegel was not affiliated with any religion. It has been said that Hegel is a religious person who does not believe in God, and this opinion is very plausible. His concept of the Spirit is easily incorporated into the Christian concept of God. While Christians believed that God was responsible for the world and how it progressed, Hegel believed that the Spirit was in control of history and where it was going.
Because of his belief in the Spirit, his opinion of a good leader has nothing to do with that person’s behavior. Instead, it is a good leader who makes a change in history, or according to history. It does not matter how this leader accomplishes this goal, but he must change history. The example of a good leader in Hegel’s eyes is Napoleon. Despite the large number of deaths caused by Napoleon’s wars, he successfully brought about change in the world. As a result of the wars, many European nations went from dynastic rule to state government.
It is a state where people can achieve freedom. Hegel distinguished between the terms moral and ethical. While morality deals with right and wrong, ethics is more involved with freedom. Hegel believes that ethics make people free by allowing people to choose to adhere to the laws of the land. While people should not stay, it would be an ethical choice. While the state appears to be the limit of freedom, Hegel argues that this is not only false, but that the state is a necessity for freedom.
The only universal liberty is realized in the state. The state allows a situation in which people can make their own decisions, adhering to universal laws as well. This is why Hegel writes that historical history does not begin until the state is formed. “It is the ultimate goal of freedom for which the entire history of the world has worked. It is that goal to which all sacrifices have been brought on the wide altar of the earth in the long course of time” (22). The events before the establishment of the State are not important, because the people living then had no idea of the State.
“But freedom itself… is itself indefinite and infinitely ambiguous” (22). This place leaves a lot of freedom to the interpretation of the word, and often, because it finds a lot, Hegel is understood to be different. However, it is freedom that is based on the Spirit, and great leaders can move history to determine the state to lead to freedom.
Works cited:
Hegel, George Wilhelm Frederick, and Leo Rauch. An Introduction to Historical Philosophy: With Selections from the Philosophy of Law. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 1988. Print.
