Philosophy of Hegel

This book edited by Carl Friedrick is a collection of Hegel's most important works such as Phenomenology of Spirit, Science of Logic, Philosophy of Right, and others. This is perhaps the toughest work of philosophy I have read, taking me about three months to complete. Six months later, I can hardly remember the key points other than those I remember from my college political philosophy classes.

The Hegelian theme that most resonates with my outlook is the idea that the Spirit animates history. Zeitgeist, or the spirit of the time, is an idea I agree with. There was a spirit of freedom and democracy when the Berlin Wall crumbled. There was a spirit of fear and insecurity as the World Trade Center towers fell. There is now a spirit of risk aversion and wait and see as Wall Street collapsed in 2008. And now, in the Philippines, there seems to be a spirit of change, hope, and renewal after the election of a new President with moral integrity. This spirit not only influences history and culture, but thought itself: "Philosophy is its own time raised to the level of thought."

All this may seem like the metaphysical crap that Kant sought to dismiss. But I am now so far removed from my skeptical, rationalist past that I feel I understand the Spirit even if I cannot defend it rationally. Perhaps this is another instance of synthesis where the rationalist critique of dogmatic metaphysics does not end in the absolute triumph of rationality, but the emergence of a deeper, wider understanding of reality.