Discussion #4: Hegel, History

Answer the following questions as completely as possible. Your answers to these questions should be, in total, at least two paragraphs in length (approx. 250 words):

Hegel is a notoriously difficult philosopher to read and understand. I want you to take a look at a passage from the Introduction to the Philosophy of History and try to interpret it as best you can. Don’t worry if you don’t fully understand it — struggling to understand is a part of Hegel’s plan. Do your best and write up what you can glean from the text:

“The only Thought which Philosophy brings with it to the contemplation of History, is the simple conception of Reason; that Reason is the Sovereign of the World; that the history of the world, therefore, presents us with a rational process. This conviction and intuition is a hypothesis in the domain of history as such. In that of Philosophy it is no hypothesis. It is there proved by speculative cognition, that Reason — and this term may here suffice us, without investigating the relation sustained by the Universe to the Divine Being — is Substance, as well as Infinite Power; its own Infinite Material underlying all the natural and spiritual life which it originates, as also the Infinite Form — that which sets this Material in motion.