The Philosophy of History in Hegel, Heidegger, and Jaspers

Abstract

I am concerned to explore the ways in which some major European philosophers, particularly Hegel, Heidegger, and Jaspers have reflected both upon their time and upon the meaning of History itself. My purpose is to encourage a similar reflection among contemporary philosophers regarding our current early twenty-first century era and the spiritual future it may portend. An underlying assumption is that Hegel was right in claiming that philosophy is both the child of its time and should also be its time comprehended in thought. However future oriented, Heidegger believes the same and embodies the nostalgic urge for a return to origins and thereby an escape from the corrosive effects of modernity. By contrast Hegel represented a sense of his particular time as a celebratory consummation of essential trends from the spiritual past. Jaspers, in turn, displays far more caution and a wise uncertainty regarding these matters. Through this stance he provides more realistic promise than either of those of his major predecessors whom I consider in these reflections. (This essay was previously published in Existenz, Vol. 1, Nos. 1–2, Fall 2006, pp. 31–36. An earlier version was published in International Readings of Theory, History and Philosophy of Culture, 21: “Dynamics of Values in Contemporary Culture,” pp. 191–200, UNESCO-EIDOS publication, St. Petersburg, Russia, 2006.).

A Tribute to Leonard and Edith Ehrlich