![]() But philosophy, in being preoccupied with the pursuit of truth, had come to be tied to understanding truth through the exploration of metaphysics (first principles), ontology (the nature of being), epistemology (theories of understanding), aesthetics (study of beauty), and ethics/political philosophy. After all, philosophy gave birth to just about everything, including science (through natural philosophy). Philosophy was once the “Queen of the Sciences,” the Queen of all academic and intellectual disciplines. Before we unpack this telling passage, we need to know the story of philosophy up to Hegel’s time. In this simple, but dense, package, Hegel brings his three great threads of thought together: History, philosophy (as understanding truth about history), and mythology. The owl of Minerva takes its flight only when the shades of night are gathering. When philosophy paints its grey in grey, one form of life has become old, and by means of grey it cannot be rejuvenated, but only known. History thus corroborates the teaching of the conception that only in the maturity of reality does the ideal appear as counterpart to the real, apprehends the real world in its substance, and shapes it into an intellectual kingdom. ![]() Philosophy, as the thought of the world, does not appear until reality has completed its formative process, and made itself ready. In his preface to Philosophy of Right, Hegel captures the essence of his project by recoursing to the image of the Owl of Minerva, Hegel’s greatest contribution to philosophy was the birth of the idea of History (Historicism), which is captured so eloquently and poetically in the preface to his Philosophy of Right. All philosophy departments, and all philosophy students, have dedicated faculty just on Hegel and his interpreters, among whom include Karl Marx, Arthur Schopenhauer, and Friedrich Nietzsche. While there are many lesser known but equally important philosophers who led up to Hegel, and influenced Hegel (Hamann, Herder, Fichte, et al.) it is Hegel who is fondly – and rightly – remembered as the “Protestant Aquinas” and the great systematizer of philosophical schools and traditions. ![]() George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel is unarguably the premier heavy-weight philosopher of late modernity. ![]()
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