The Best of All Possible Histories of Western Europe. Why then, is Hegel so afraid of pluralism? The answer may lie in part with his dialectical logic. Hegel’s dialectical has a cyclical aspect, but reflection always brings us linearly forward to a new Concept.67 The existence of other legitimate paths towards the realization of the freedom, paths that other cultures may have been on, would violate the stringent rules for progression in the Hegelian system.68
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Conclusion
Hegel’s racism, like the rest of his philosophy is systematic. While racist attitudes appear in a relatively small minority of his texts, mostly confined to posthumously published texts, no aspect of Hegel’s philosophy can be taken in isolation. The root issues of cultural essentialism, genocide based on dehumanization, perpetual wrongs like enslavement, and the distorted lens of Orientalism, once identified, can be assigned causes and consequences throughout his philosophical system. This study has focused primarily on tracing the implications of Hegel’s racism to the philosophy of objective spirit. Cultural essentialism is a significant background assumption to the Philosophy of Right, as it helps frame the assumption that societal progression is the realization of a national idea. Slavery helps us to identify the problems with Hegel’s concept of wrong, showing how making moral wrong a necessary evil can justify clearly horrendous actions as long as they serve the realization of freedom. The tacit indifference to genocide demonstrates how Hegel’s concept of personality excludes people from the category of human on the grounds of cultural and biological features. Finally, Hegel’s Orientalism reveals that his philosophical system struggles with any form of pluralism. While these results are interesting, they leave many questions unanswered. There is still considerable ambiguity about whether Hegel’s racism is internally consistent with the rest of his system. To put it another way, would Hegel’s system be made more rational by removing the racist conclusions, or does the structure of his system necessitate these conclusions? Certainly, Hegel’s philosophy would appear more agreeable if racist passages were disregarded, but whether this can be done while preserving the cohesion of the full system is best left to scholars with a broader background in Hegel’s philosophy. Similarly, scholars with strong knowledge of other 67. Paul Redding, "The Logic of Hegel’s Encyclopaedia Philosophy of Spirit," in Hegel’s Philosophy of Spirit: A Critical Guide, ed. Marina Bykova (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019), 18-19. 68. Nelson, "Hegel, Difference, Multiplicity."
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