The Cunning of Geist

Hegel is perhaps most famous for the Hegelian Dialectic.  But to what exactly does this term refer?  This episode will examine the history of dialectics, starting with the first dialectician, Zeno of Elea, up through Hegel's unique take on this.  Hegel's notions of understanding and reason are also explored in terms of their respective roles in the dialectical process. 

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In "The Master and His Emissary" (2009), British psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist shows how Hegel's notion of Reason versus Understanding relates to our current scientific understanding of the functions of the left and right brain hemispheres. We have an analytic, verbal consciousness in the left-brain, and a more holistic consciousness in the right-brain. Hegel’s famous treatment of the Unhappy Consciousness also can be related to this difference. This episode will explore these topics in detail.  

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A theodicy attempts to explains how an all good, all powerful, all knowing God permits evil in the world. While Hegel did not share this traditional view of God, he nonetheless presents a coherent theodicy of his own through Spirit’s (Geist’s) march through history. This episode will explore the age-old problem of evil in light of Hegel’s philosophy.

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Philosophers and theologians have pondered questions concerning God, time, and eternity for more than two millennia.  Hegel proposed a game changing reinterpretation of divine eternity.  This episode will review Hegel’s contribution in light of current religious thought as well as recent developments in physics.

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Was Hegel a mystic?  His philosophy and mysticism are not necessarily mutually exclusive given Hegel’s definition of this term.  This episode explores correspondence to Hegel in the Hermetic Mystery Schools, Gnosticism, and Kabbalah.  

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Dr. Martin Luther King’s favorite philosopher was Hegel. This episode explores MLK’s take on core elements of Hegel’s philosophy and its relation to King's own work.

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Hegel remained a Lutheran all his life. But was he a traditional Christian? I believe not. Hegel’s take on the Christian narrative is quite different. The contemporary philosopher Slavoj Žižek calls it atheistic Christianity. A very brief review of Hegel’s presentation is that the Old Testament God “dies” with the New Testament Jesus, who becomes God as man; and when Jesus dies, the Spirit of God enters into us all. This episode will explore Hegel’s interpretation of Christianity and how it fits into his overall system.   

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True Infinity is a cornerstone concept of Hegel's philosophy.  In this episode I briefly review how Hegel gets to this concept in his Science of Logic.  It is important to note that True Infinity is not a notion that Hegel pulls out of thin air, but is a concept that is rationally constructed though thought itself.  I present here the very basic skeleton outline of his move from presuppositionless Being to True Infinity. 

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Hegel famously begins his Science of Logic with presuppositionless Being, which turns out to mean the same thing an Nothing, leading to the notion of Becoming.  This important concept is explored in some depth.  It is also compared to our own personal perception of the flow of time.   Block spacetime versus time as a process is explored.  The possibility of a time ultimately being a circle, which Hegel touched on, is also examined.  

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In this episode I discuss the broad outlines of Hegel's system, and compare it to current scientific thinking, including Darwinian evolution.  I go into more detail on the meaning of Geist/Spirit/Mind, and how it evolves in human culture through art, religion, and philosophy.  In addition to Hegel, specific ideas touched include those of John Archibald Wheeler, Stephen Jay Gould, and Noam Chomsky, 

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