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Hegel's Philosophy of History

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Hegel's ideas on history as the progress of the consciousness of freedom, and whether we enjoy more freedom now than those in past centuries.

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss ideas of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770 - 1831) on history. Hegel, one of the most influential of the modern philosophers, described history as the progress in the consciousness of freedom, asking whether we enjoy more freedom now than those who came before us. To explore this, he looked into the past to identify periods when freedom was moving from the one to the few to the all, arguing that once we understand the true nature of freedom we reach an endpoint in understanding. That end of history, as it's known, describes an understanding of freedom so far progressed, so profound, that it cannot be extended or deepened even if it can be lost.

With

Sally Sedgwick
Professor and Chair of Philosophy at Boston University

Robert Stern
Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sheffield

And

Stephen Houlgate
Professor of Philosophy at the University of Warwick

Producer: Simon Tillotson

Available now

52 minutes

Last on

Thu 26 May 2022 21:30
麻豆约拍 Radio 4

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LINKS AND FURTHER READING

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READING LIST

Eric Michael Dale, Hegel, the End of History, and the Future聽(Cambridge University Press, 2014)

Michael N. Forster and Kristin Gjesdal (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of German Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century (Oxford University Press, 2015), especially 鈥楶hilosophy of History鈥� by Sally Sedgwick

G. W. F. Hegel (trans. J. Sibree), The Philosophy of History (Dover, 1956)

G. W. F. Hegel (ed. Johannes Hoffmeister), Lectures on the Philosophy of World History: Introduction, Reason in History (Cambridge University Press, 1975)

G. W. F. Hegel (trans. H. B. Nisbet), Elements of the Philosophy of Right (Cambridge University Press, 1991)

G. W. F. Hegel (ed. and trans. Robert F. Brown and Peter C. Hodgson), Lectures on the Philosophy of World History, volume 1: Manuscripts of the Introduction and the Lectures of 1822-3 (Oxford University Press, 2011)

Gunnar Hindrichs and Axel Honneth (eds.), Freiheit: Stuttgarter Hegel-Kongress 2011, (Klostermann, 2011), especially 鈥楩reedom in History鈥� by Michael Rosen

Peter C. Hodgson, Shapes of Freedom: Hegel鈥檚 Philosophy of World History in Theological Perspective (Oxford University Press, 2012)

Stephen Houlgate, Hegel: Freedom, Truth, and History, 2nd edn (Blackwell, 2005), especially Chapter 1

Stephen Houlgate and Michael Baur (eds.), A Companion to Hegel (John Wiley & Sons, 2011), especially 鈥楬egel and Ranke: A Re-examination鈥� by Frederick C. Beiser and 鈥樷�淭he Ruling Categories of the World鈥�: The Trinity in Hegel鈥檚 Philosophy of History and The Rise and Fall of Peoples鈥� by Robert Bernasconi

Jean Hyppolite (trans. Bond聽Harris and Jacqueline Bouchard Spurlock),聽Introduction to Hegel鈥檚 Philosophy of History (University Press of聽Florida, 1996)

Thomas A. Lewis, Religion, Modernity, and Politics in Hegel (Oxford University Press, 2011)

Joe McCarney, Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Hegel on History (Routledge, 2000)

Angelica Nuzzo, Memory, History, Justice in Hegel聽(Palgrave Macmillan, 2012)

George Dennis O鈥橞rien, Hegel on Reason and History (Chicago University Press, 1975)

Terry Pinkard, Does History Make Sense? Hegel on the Historical Shapes of Justice (Harvard University Press, 2017)

Sally Sedgwick, Time and History in Hegelian Thought and Spirit (Oxford University Press, forthcoming)

Rudolf J. Siebert, Hegel鈥檚 Philosophy of History: Theological, Humanistic, and Scientific Elements (University Press of America, 1979)

Olufemi Taiwo, 鈥楨xorcising Hegel鈥檚 Ghost: Africa鈥檚 Challenge to Philosophy鈥� (African Studies Quarterly 1, 1998)

Burleigh Taylor Wilkins, Hegel鈥檚 Philosophy of History (Cornell University Press, 1974)


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  • Thu 26 May 2022 09:00
    麻豆约拍 Radio 4
  • Thu 26 May 2022 21:30
    麻豆约拍 Radio 4

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