Hegel and the end of history?

The philosophy of G.W.F Hegel is notoriously difficult and complex, yet to many it is profound and has influenced the world in which we live more than any other philosopher past or present. His magnum opus, the Phenomenology of Spirit, lays out a vast and all-encompassing paradigm of history, progress and freedom as a continuous process of the dialectic revealing new aspects of reality, leading to Absolute Spirit. Karl Marx, one of Hegel’s disciples, translated the dialectic into a history of class struggles which would culminate in a new world order. Others have taken Hegel’s ideas to promote politics on the far-right spectrum. Given the current global situation, have we reached the end of history?

Andreas Wasmuht, BRLSI Philosophy convenor