Hegel Everywhere

To be honest, the first time I read Hegel's essay I only partially understood the ideas he was trying to convey, but our class discussion really helped to expand on some of the concepts he wrote of and frankly, I find them insightful. Now I can't stop thinking about how Hegel's ideas apply in my everyday life. In class we spoke about his idea of thesis vs. antithesis as it relates to Christianity. Hegel wrote that progress could only be made by the negation of the antithesis through synthesis. Synthesis meaning that the conflict between the thesis and the antithesis is resolved but they stay true to their values.

Christianity, which was embodied by the Europeans, is the most developed religion as it synthesizes the divine and the human, the innocent and the guilty, the virgin and the mother, etc. Hegel makes the claim that the "principle of the European mind is, therefore, self-conscious reason which therefore takes an interest in everything in order to become present to itself therein." In order to understand this quote we have to understand that Hegel believed that it wasn't descent that divided man but instead, it was rational. He wrote that "man is implicitly rational; herein lies the possibility of equal justice for all men and the futility of a rigid distinction between races which have rights and those which have none." In writing that he explains the relationship between Africans and Europeans and how the rationalizing Europeans sought to govern the Africans who were like children. This drive was backed by the mindset that for years to come, the conditions would stay like they were in his time period. Of course, with Hegel's division of races by rationality, he allows for the potential of educated Africans to be equal to Europeans. In other words, the only thing that keeps races equal to one another is rational, or in a more commonly used term now, knowledge! Knowledge is power people!

Professor Johnson drew the parallel to how Rhodes treats service and how there is a mindset that we sometimes go out and "help" others in need without fully understanding their situation. This is the same mindset that Europeans had with the Africans. As a Bonner scholar and a Christian, Hegel's ideas and the parallels to the modern day that we draw are more and more evident as I start to wonder in what other ways his ideas take relevance in my life.