WEBVTT 00:00:09.830 --> 00:00:12.444 Is there an end to history? 00:00:13.340 --> 00:00:17.826 Whereas most generally think of history as a record of past events, 00:00:17.826 --> 00:00:20.679 philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel 00:00:20.679 --> 00:00:23.099 considered it to be a rational process, 00:00:23.099 --> 00:00:25.663 moving towards completion. 00:00:25.663 --> 00:00:28.065 Make no mistake, by end of history, 00:00:28.065 --> 00:00:30.906 Hegel wasn't prophesying the end of the world, 00:00:30.906 --> 00:00:35.136 but to discover what he did mean we must first ask ourselves, 00:00:35.136 --> 00:00:37.278 "What is history?" 00:00:37.548 --> 00:00:41.968 According to Hegel, history is the progression of reason, 00:00:41.968 --> 00:00:45.523 brought about largely by confrontation and conflict. 00:00:49.013 --> 00:00:52.835 For example, if a group of rebels siege a castle, 00:00:52.835 --> 00:00:54.971 we have two opposing forces, 00:00:54.971 --> 00:00:57.458 the establishment and the challenger. 00:00:57.458 --> 00:01:01.472 Through this conflict, the opposing ideologies will collide 00:01:01.472 --> 00:01:04.561 and produce a new establishment. 00:01:05.331 --> 00:01:08.557 Like the one before it, this idea will eventually 00:01:08.557 --> 00:01:10.759 invite upheaval. 00:01:10.759 --> 00:01:16.239 And the dialectical process, yielding heightened rationality, will continue. 00:01:18.032 --> 00:01:20.968 But such changes don't occur randomly. 00:01:20.968 --> 00:01:24.409 To Hegel, history is pushed forward by freedom, 00:01:24.409 --> 00:01:27.284 mankind's essential nature. 00:01:27.534 --> 00:01:31.370 As history progresses, we become more self-conscious, 00:01:31.370 --> 00:01:33.377 therefore, more rational. 00:01:33.377 --> 00:01:35.994 And, therefore, more free. 00:01:37.188 --> 00:01:40.823 For example, as a warrior gains more experience points, 00:01:40.823 --> 00:01:42.723 he is granted more skills. 00:01:42.723 --> 00:01:46.491 The more skills he gains, the more choices he has in combat. 00:01:46.491 --> 00:01:48.682 And thus he is freer. 00:01:48.983 --> 00:01:52.807 As the ages pass, we have become more free. 00:01:53.197 --> 00:01:56.859 During the age of the Orient, only the ruler was free. 00:01:57.599 --> 00:01:59.836 In ancient Greece, some were free. 00:02:01.187 --> 00:02:04.044 And in Hegel's time, following the French Revolution, 00:02:04.044 --> 00:02:06.760 it was thought that all should be free. 00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:09.271 So if freedom is the end goal of history, 00:02:09.271 --> 00:02:13.861 will there ever be a perfected state that invites no more change? 00:02:13.861 --> 00:02:16.169 An end to the dialectic? 00:02:16.179 --> 00:02:19.032 In his book, The Phenomenology of Spirit, 00:02:19.062 --> 00:02:22.517 Hegel devised the concept of "world spirit", 00:02:22.717 --> 00:02:27.455 or the manifestation of reason exhibited through a society's culture, 00:02:27.455 --> 00:02:30.890 including its philosophy, religion, and art. 00:02:32.260 --> 00:02:35.775 The ultimate freedom will occur when the world spirit, 00:02:35.775 --> 00:02:38.010 or collective consciousness of a culture, 00:02:38.010 --> 00:02:40.367 becomes entirely rational. 00:02:43.667 --> 00:02:48.302 Only then can a unified society be established in which its laws 00:02:48.302 --> 00:02:51.434 and institutions will invite no more change 00:02:51.464 --> 00:02:55.098 because they are in perfect harmony with their culture. 00:02:55.098 --> 00:02:59.832 And, thus, the dialectical process of history will end. 00:03:00.851 --> 00:03:03.791 Hegel's philosophy of history inspired some of the most 00:03:03.791 --> 00:03:06.882 important thinkers of the 19th century, 00:03:06.882 --> 00:03:10.590 including one young poet who would one day become 00:03:10.590 --> 00:03:13.763 one one of the world's most influential figures.