Hegel

History is like a river, always moving but constant in purpose: to move forward. It evolves and progresses through the unfolding of the universal, absolute spirit of the world: the Weltgeist. Just like a river, history also has a set path, and a destination where the spirit becomes conscious of itself.

History is driven by ideas and the desire of freedom. We achieve this through dialectic progression. My dialectic is made up of three aspects: thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. Through the presentation of an idea, negation of that idea, and a compromise based on two negating ideas, history is able to move forward, society is able to grow stronger and ideas are able to supplant themselves. Examples: Protestant Reformation (thesis: autocratic Catholic Church, antithesis: Reformation based on freedom of the believer, synthesis: two branches of Christianity combining authority and freedom in new ways).

Every society is manifesting the spirit of the world as it continues along history’s arch. The duty of society is to embody and abet in the unfolding of the idea of freedom and societies bring contributions to human culture that together make up the realization of the absolute spirit in history. Look at the ideas of Plato or Socrates and their emphasis on the freedom of the mind. Look at the inventions by Gutenberg, the art of Michelangelo, the myths of the Greeks as parts of living culture. Look at the rise of modern constitutional states with their emphasis on the rights and freedom of citizens—Hegel’s Prussia and the US.

The spirit synthesizes knowledge and the freedom of humanity is increasingly realized through our recognition of each other as free and equal. This is how history moves—in a beautiful, deterministic, flowing manner. The world spirit is the sum of “human utterances” and “human reflections.” In the world spirit we recognize ourselves, and we realize that we are part of something truly great.