Toward a Reconsideration of the Role of Love in Hegel: An Analysis

Especially within a society such as ours, which distorts love into lust, the ability to recognize and display the gift of love is essential. Selfish love, which is so inherent to humanity, inhibits God from acting in our lives, blinding us from experiencing His presence and eternal joy. It is so easy to look for pleasure and love in self satisfaction. However, the path to lasting happiness is not found through instant gratifications, but in the grueling practice of living a life full of

Hegel's philosophy of History, on of the greatest in the philosophy cannon, is the great philosophers greatest body of work. The philosophy of History is based on such ideals as the idea that Reason rules history. George Hegel used Immanuel Kant's system of

German philosophers Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770 – 1831) and Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900) have traditionally been viewed as polar opposites in terms of their philosophy. Hegel has been dubbed an idealist and a systematic philosopher who identified various different types of History, theoretical entities and concepts. Nietzsche, on the other hand, is seen to be a counter-Enlightenment and counter-systematic philosopher who penned the well-known text, ‘Genealogy of Morals’. In this essay, I aim to bring to light the underlying similarities between the two thinkers that have previously been overlooked, as well as to identify the differences in Hegel and Nietzsche’s ideologies and presuppositions.

Neither one of them can be precisely placed in any of the religious categories of the period; Calvinism (both orthodox and reformed), Unitarianism, Transcendentalism, and liberal "Christocentric humanism" all exerted definite influences on both works, but both works similarly resist direct placement not only because of the syncretic nature of their programs, but the fluidity of these very traditions. Therefore, while some hesitancy is a necessary hazard of such a investigation, it nevertheless preserves a respect for the complexity of the religious history involved.

Hegel’s critique of Kant’s philosophy is quite prevalent throughout the unfolding of Hegel’s own dialectical philosophy. Several of Hegel’s critiques of Kant’s work can especially be seen in one of his earlier works, “The Phenomenology of Spirit.” This is particularly established once Hegel begins to undertake the developing of Spirit within his Phenomenology. Here, Hegel makes several attacks on Kantian philosophy principles, and at some of the foundations of Kant’s use of pure reason in philosophy. There are several passages within the section where Hegel gives criticism of Kant’s work; critiques that strike at the very heart of what Hegel himself is trying to elucidate through his own dialectic, while discounting one of the greatest German philosophers.

Known as the father of modern liberal theology, Friedrich Schleiermacher was a German theologian, philosopher and biblical scholar who focused his attention on the nature of religious experience from the viewpoint of the individual and human nature itself (Mariña 3). Influenced by German Romanticism, Schleiermacher attempted to reconcile the criticisms of the Enlightenment with traditional Protestant Christianity (Crouter 261). By doing so, he abandoned the pietistic Moravian theology that had failed to satisfy his increasing doubts and he adopted the rational spirit of Christian Wolff and Johann Salomo Semler. He then became acquainted with the techniques of historical criticism of the New Testament and of Johann Augustus Eberhard, from whom he acquired a love of the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. As a result, he began applying ideas from the Greek philosophers to a reconstruction of Immanuel Kant’s system (Mariña 3). On this basis, this essay articulate Friedrich Schleiermacher’s understanding of religion and its relationship to Christianity as described in Speech I: Defense and Speech II: The Nature of Religion of his work On Religion: Speeches to Its Cultured Despisers. The essay will explore Schleiermacher’s rejection of various views of religion held by the despisers, explain his identification of the true religion with feeling and describe his view of the relationship between religion and Christianity.

From this point, Hegel introduces the archetypes of the lord and the bondsman. The bondsman is the position that most of humanity occupies since most people are ultimately concerned for the struggle for bodily survival as a result of the profound fear of death and place that struggle as being central to existence and far more important than defending the integrity of the ego, an invisible concept which may not help them in their endeavors. Because they are easily manipulated by these external needs, men often fall under the power of other men, such as the lord and the bondsman loses sight of himself more as he begins to work for the lord. The problem of enslavement becomes much worse, especially if one’s sense of self is vastly different than the ‘other’s’ objective view of the self (since the self views the ‘other’ as an object). Although that seems to be the crux of the relationship, this working through fear is simply the first phase toward an independent self-consciousness.

Russian Orthodox philosopher of the XX century Ivan A. Iljin was deeply engaged in the hegellian dialectics. His fundamental two-volume work titled

The way freedom develops itself is though the phenomenon of history. Freedom is essentially an internal idea, but it manifest itself externally thoughout history. It may seem that many of the actions throughout history are from mens needs, passions, and desires, but Hegel says that while some actions in history do come from these things, they are relatively small in comparison to the whole canvas of history. Hegel says that passions, private aims, and the satisfaction of selfish desires are what have really driven most men throughout history and there powers are that they respect none of the limitations which laws and morality would impose on them. These passions, private aims, and selfish desires are actually closer to our own human nature then the artificial and troublesome discipline that tend to move to order, self-restraint, law, and morality.

George Hegel introduced to the world to the theory of ideas, known as the Hegelian dialectic, and it is quite astonishing as it contemplates and assesses contradicting ideas and ultimately generates a new idea. Hegel believes that all human ideas (thesis) are often in heated confrontations with their similar counterparts (antithesis), in which both may be equally feasible for a society. Hegel believes that these issues must be resolved through the synthesis of a new idea.

As presented in the Phenomenology of Spirit, the aim of Life is to free itself from confinement "in-itself" and to become "for-itself." Not only does Hegel place this unfolding of Life at the very beginning of the dialectical development of self-consciousness, but he characterizes self-consciousness itself as a form of Life and points to the advancement of self-consciousness in the Master/Slave dialectic as the development of Life becoming "for-itself." This paper seeks to delineate this often overlooked thread of dialectical insight as it unfolds in the Master/Slave dialectic. Hegel articulates a vision of the place of human self-consciousness in the process of Life as a whole and throws light on the role of death as an essential

Hegel’s political views rejected the ideas of individualism and placed the Nation-State at the absolute and supreme authority. He believed that a person’s primary duty was to serve the Nation-State by participating in its culture, politics, and religion.

The modern concept of love owes a great deal to the Humanist tradition of the Renaissance. The humanists focused on perfection and exaltation of this life as opposed to the afterlife. In Tristan and Iseult the seeds of Renaissance love are present in the Middle Ages. To the modern eye, it is a mystery how the period of the Middle Ages produced the seeds of the diametrically opposite Renaissance. Yet it is necessary to understand this transformation if one is to fully comprehend the forces that helped produce the modern consciousness. Courtly Love is a transitional concept that emerged in the Middle Ages. It is transitional because it emerged early and acknowledges God as the creator of love,

God is absolute mind, God is the totality of human thinking and through spirit God is becoming aware of its own self-consciousness to reach even higher levels of consciousness. This is the notion of absolute mind according to Hegel, he mentions that during this process of absolute mind of becoming aware of itself. Human history tends to be a “Slaughter-bench” (Hegel 71), reason being because diversity is trying to figure itself out. As seen in his dialectics, patterns which dictates even the absolute spirit, there are two dialectics that he mentions, the ethical and political dialectics. These dialectics contains a thesis which is the original definition of something, an antithesis which is contrary to the thesis. Finally, those two are synthesized to become one, a better solution. For example, the political dialectics has a thesis of containing of the family life, which relates to

Throughout the ages, many have tried to comprehend the human experience of love and its ineffable and mysterious force that leads us to complete euphoria or utter despair, with songs, paintings, and stories. In Plato’s Symposium, six guest including Socrates, tackle and attempt to define love amongst each other. With each attempt, and our study of Johns gospel, the intertextuality between the symposium and John 15:8-17 helps one better understand the portrait that John portrays of Jesus as the ultimate lover and only way to being fully complete.