2 Philosophical History and Anthropology

The Best of All Possible Histories

philosophical “issues” already identified in the contemporary literature on Hegel, namely cultural essentialism, genocide, slavery, and Orientalism. These issues are present in the lectures, as well as the anthropology section of the Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences. I will show that these issues can have their origins and effects traced to the Philosophy of Right and will use this process to create tangible criticisms of that text. The analysis will demonstrate deep problems with Hegel’s concept of wrong, his exclusionary construction of personhood, and his philosophical system’s inability to account for cultural pluralism.

An understanding of Hegel’s Eurocentrism must begin with an understanding of his historical theory. For Hegel, history consists of three very separate practices. The first two, only briefly mentioned, constitute the modern discipline of empirical history. The third, titled ‘Philosophical History’ is a more interpretive science, and Hegel’s primary focus. The philosopher must explicate the evolution of rationality throughout the known history of the world, showing how rationality evolves from the chaos of human passions and private ends.3 However, the historian should not force historical data into an a priori framework. The point here is to illuminate the rationality already present in all things by studying historical events.4 To Hegel, this goal only assumed what was plainly evident from the rest of his philosophical system, making philosophical history into an act of pure interpretation, belonging entirely to the field of philosophy, not to empirical history.5

Philosophical history is concerned primarily with the spirit,6 tracking the development and actualization of human culture. However, in order to realize its idea, the spirit must become actual, and contemplate itself in concrete form.7 Thus, world history is under the domain of objective spirit in Hegel’s philosophical system, because it deals with the realization of human freedom. This creates a link between history and the Philosophy of Right, which is his more formal discussion of actualized freedom.8 History shows the realization of human freedom across the ages, and

Philosophical Classics, (London: George Bell & Sons, 1896), vii-xi. 3. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Lectures on the Philosophy of World History, trans. J. Sibree, Dover Philosophical Classics, (Boston: The Colonial Press, 1899), 37. 4. Ibid., 10. 5. Ibid., 16-17. 6. Ibid., 16. 7. Ibid., 25. 8. Hegel, Elements of the Philosophy of Right, Preface: xii & xx.

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