Hegel and the French Revolution

Abstract

Hegel (1770-1831) is usually considered the most important European philosopher since Kant. His influence spread throughout the world until World War II, especially through his wayward disciple, Karl Marx. Since then, its importance has tended to be eclipsed by a rising tide of antimodernist polemics, ranging from Heidegger to postmodernism (although occasionally and intermittently it has reverted to attention). The vision that Hegel had of the French Revolution was fundamental in the forging of his political thought. However, despite the decisive role it played in the development of his ideas, his reaction to this event has been systematically misinterpreted. By presenting a more accurate account of Hegel’s interpretation of his own time, the argument presented here situates his response to contemporary events in the context of a series of World Revolutions that determined the meaning of his time. This way of approaching the problem serves to illustrate the unique combination of historical and philosophical reasoning on which Hegel’s thought depended. When we proceed in this way, the reconstruction of his arguments leads us to question the applicability of past political ideas to later historical periods.