HEGEL'S HISTORICAL REVOLUTION

History cannot be consigned to a corner in Hegel's system, relegated to a few paragraphs near the end of the Encyclopedia or confined to his Lectures on the Philosophy of History For, as many scholars have long since recognized, history is central to Hegel's conception of philosophy. One of the most striking and characteristic features of Hegel's thought is that it historicizes philosophy, explaining its purpose, principles, and problems in historical terms. Rather than seeing philosophy as a timeless a priori reflection upon eternal forms, Hegel regards it as the self-consciousness of a specific culture, the articulation, defense, and criticism of its essential values and beliefs. This historical conception of philosophy is epitomized clearly by Hegel himself in the famous lines from the preface to his Philosophy of Right: “Philosophy is its own age comprehended in thought” (VII, 26).