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Essay / George Wilhelm Friedrich and the French Revolution
George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a German philosopher born in Stuttgart in 1770. In his youth he studied theology, but was also driven to explore philosophy by the upheavals of that time . dangerous period in history. The Reign of Terror and the French Revolution had a huge impact on Germany and Europe, and Hegel got caught up in the fervor and indignation of this period and wanted to take a closer look at the events that were occurring. His view and analysis of the French Revolution are at the origin of his reflection on history. After graduating from the seminary, Hegel joined the faculty of the University of Jena, the philosophical center of Germany. There he wrote Phenomenology of Spirit, his first major book. Hegel left the University in 1806 after the Battle of Jena in which Napoleon and his troops fought Frederick William III of Prussia. Hegel then moved to Nuremberg and became director of philosophy at a high school there, with future philosophy teaching positions secured at several universities. During this period as an educator, he published his books Science of Logic (1813), Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences (1817) and his Philosophy of Law (1821). Hegel died in 1831 from cholera contracted during the European pandemic. His friends and contemporaries believed that he still had a significant contribution to make to philosophy. They collected his handwritten lecture notes and combined them with transcriptions of his lectures written by his student listeners. The resulting publications were Philosophy of Art, Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy of History, and History of Philosophy. Hegel proposed that we can better understand ourselves and the world by studying history. In his Philosophy...... middle of article......national freedom and is the actualization of freedom as it expands, unfolds and thus creates history. The medium that Spirit uses to realize itself is human life, and as we all know, humans have subjective ideas, interests, passions, and minds of their own. When these passions combine with universal laws, Spirit reveals itself and history occurs. The union of an entire culture and government is called State, and this is how the Spirit actualizes itself in unique forms. Finally, Spirit constantly changes and reinvents itself over time and historical events. As Spirit actualizes itself into a stable State, the natural process then leads to a change in the status quo and a breakdown occurs. This constant struggle between self-destruction and self-renewal is how Spirit re-actualizes itself in a new State. According to Hegel, it is the force behind all human history.