The series of lectures “Hegel and the Modern World” organized by Professor Deng Anqing was eye-catching. There are many discussions about Hegel, including logic, dialectics, and metaphysics. What I focus on is Hegel and the modern world. In fact, there are quite a few works on Hegel and the modern society, the modern state, and the modern spirit. Compared with the relationship between Hegel and Greece, the Middle Ages, and Germany, what people are more interested in is the The relationship between Hegel and the modern world, whether it is his lectures on the history of philosophy, historical philosophy, aesthetics, or religion, always occupies the most space, the most abundant content, and the most exciting discussions.
As a figure in the early nineteenth century, why is the topic of Hegel and the modern world so relished? Hegel has died many times as a philosophical dead dog, and he has been lamented by Marx. However, Hegel’s figure follows closely in the modern world, constantly appearing in various philosophical schools. When positivism and neo-Kantism prevailed, neo-Hegelianism appeared; when French realism prevailed, Kojève-style The Hegelian readings of France dominated the philosophical themes of the twentieth century in France; the communitarians who fought liberalism benefited from Hegel’s ideas, and Fukuyama, who announced the end of history, was only a Kojève reading. Just a popular version; just when analytic philosophy was thought to be the last bulwark away from Hegel, Dieter Heinrich joined the two traditions, and not only did a group of famous Hegelian experts such as Teri Pinka emerge in the English-speaking world German, Robert Pippin, MacDowell, Brandon and other Pittsburgh School scholars also have Hegelian elements, not to mention that Hegel’s shadow is still active in Western Marxism, pragmatism and other schools of thought In the book, Hegel’s appearance in the modern world is endless, dragging out a long shadow. For no other reason, this so-called “modern” has not gone beyond the boundaries explored by Hegel, and the Hegelian method is still full of vitality. This picture of the connection between Hegel and modern philosophy is extremely complex, far beyond what can be covered here.
As far as I am concerned with Hegel, several of the concerns are also directly related to the modern world. First, how exactly does Hegel view “individual freedom”? Second, “individual freedom” is not enough. Where is the complexity of modern society? Third, how to understand world history, and how to understand the diversity of civilizations and technological progress in the world historical picture? These are, in my opinion, fundamental questions of the modern world raised by Hegel. On these issues, Hegel is still constantly reading, bringing endless inspiration to people. Here I also talk about my understanding of Hegel.
First, Hegel attached great importance to “individual freedom” as the starting point of the modern world. In my opinion, Hegel’s philosophy has survived because he understood that freedom is the core idea of the modern world. Although Hegel has a multi-faceted discourse on “freedom”, he knows that freedom is not just an abstract concept, and freedom must be implemented as the freedom of every individual, which is the starting point of the modern world. He has repeatedly said that the huge difference between the ancient world and the modern world lies in “individual freedom”. In the modern world, no matter what an individual does, he should be mediated by his own will, that is, out of his own will, modern “All forms of state institutions that cannot in themselves tolerate the principle of free subjectivity, nor know how to adapt to growing reason, are one-sided.” In the modern world, if the state cannot allow individuals to freely identify with , or an individual feels that the country is opposed to his own freedom, then the country is not a modern country. Hegel was very dissatisfied with this so-called principle of free subjectivity and deeply criticized modern liberalism, but he always insisted that this is the bottom line of the modern world. vitality.
Second, Hegel deeply understood the complex aspects of the modern world. Hegel knew that in the modern world only the subjectivity principle of freedom is not enough, and he has a series of criticisms of modern liberalism. Whether it is contractual liberalism or Kantian deontological liberalism, in Hegel’s view, there are fundamental deficiencies. On the one hand, Hegel realized that freedom is not achieved overnight, but has a long process. In the Phenomenology of Spirit, freedom not only has an observation that breeds fission in the “subjective spirit”, but also has a fission in the objective spirit. The long process of “Bildung”. On the other hand, Hegel’s discussion of “ethical life” is to see that whether freedom of rights or moral freedom is not enough to truly achieve freedom, the problem of freedom in the modern world has a more complicated aspect. Insightful understanding, in addition to rational autonomy, the individual has a deep emotional attachment, a need for systematic interconnection, and a deep-rooted community orientation, which constitutes the complexity of the modern world and shows the reality of individual freedom is a far more complex issue than modern liberal understanding. Without realizing this, it is impossible to understand the fascination of Hegel in the modern world.
Third, the future direction of mankind. The difference between the modern world and the traditional world lies not only in freedom, but also in the fact that it has a distinct future dimension. Under the title of “world history”, Hegel discussed the future direction of history, which people attribute to “the end of history” . No matter which way of understanding “the end of history”, the modern world has not broken through the framework of thinking given by Hegel. Today’s diverse forms of civilization, the hurricane of technology, the comprehensive crisis of the environment, and the unprecedented challenges facing mankind in the future, how to break through Hegel’s historical framework and establish the true future direction of mankind has become a very urgent problem. The present world embraces the future in a way that faces the past, and in this respect, people today are far less active and more enlightened than Hegel.
The significance of Hegel to the modern world is much more than that. The series of lectures organized by Deng Anqing have developed more topics. The lectures focus on the new generation of scholars, innovating and bringing forth new ideas one after another. This is the treasure of Hegel in the modern world. the meaning of.
Source: China Social Science Network
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