Assignment: Hegel's Understanding of History

 Georg Hegel had an encyclopedic mind.  He seems to have remembered everything. He especially remembers historical conflicts and the tragedies they have wrought on peoples throughout history. That got him wondering about why and could those events teach us something and lead to better lives for people in the future.  He used a dialectic of thought to try to come to some understanding of what history means. We don't usually think of history in this way, but to his credit Hegel was right to make some sense out of the tragedies that befall us, especially due to war. He calls this the "slaughter bench" of history, and he wondered if past events can teach us how to be better.  

 Napoleon Bonaparte Biography.  Cloud Biography,  YouTube.  12 April 2012. https://youtu.be/BGxFNtCPnB0 

Hegel mentions that certain individuals move history forward. Napoleon is one of those  world-historical individuals.  Hegel watched in fascination and then disappointment as the tragedy of the French Revolution unfolded and then as the country was brought to order under Napoleon. Unfortunately, Napoleon over reached .

There is so much to Hegel's philosophy that it would take years to master even some small pieces of it, but our text does a good job of explaining his ideas of History and freedom and the place world-historical individuals have to make our world either better or worse.  So in the reading this week in the section that deals with his view of history and freedom. give a detailed explanation of how the World Spirit works through important historical people to advance the course of history and of our lives.

Submission:

• Must be a minimum of 1 1/2 pages with standard 1-inch margins in Times New Roman or Garamond font. 
  
• Must be double-spaced.
• Must address the topic of the paper with critical thought.
• Must include in-text citations and references in MLA style. 
• Name, course, and assignment top left.
• Include a Title.