Hegel
Hegel believed that history was a movement tending towards the realization of "freedom" (although there is much debate over precisely what Hegel means by freedom) - which, in his own historical moment, he had held his own society to represent, or at least represent the beginning of. For Hegel, divisions and conflicts between people were the external appearance of the internal tensions which drive the development of Spirit. Conflict and its resolution were the ratchet by which human progress was driven steadily forwards - he once famously described Napoleon Bonaparte as 'the World Spirit on horseback'. Accordingly: having arrived at the end of history, these divisions were to be reconciled by the new 'universal class' of state bureaucrats, who acted at all times to reconcile conflicts of interest and acted only in the best interests of the entire society.
Read more about this topic: Universal Class
Famous quotes containing the word hegel:
“The history of the world is none other than the progress of the consciousness of freedom.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“The History of the world is not the theatre of happiness. Periods of happiness are blank pages in it, for they are periods of harmony—periods when the antithesis is in abeyance.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“We do not need to be shoemakers to know if our shoes fit, and just as little have we any need to be professionals to acquire knowledge of matters of universal interest.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)