Hegel’s Philosophy from Nihilism to Enlightenment

Dylan Shaul presents one of the most important events in modern philosophy, the Pantheism Controversy sparked by the reception of Spinoza in 18th century Germany. The Controversy involved the greatest German philosophers of the period, and laid the foundations for the next 200 years of European thought. In the balance of the Pantheism Controversy hung the fate of the Enlightenment and Modernity; the fate of faith and reason, religion and philosophy; the fate of freedom, of the immortal soul, and even of God Godself. Our story will take us from the renegade Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza, to the heyday of the German Aufklärung or Enlightenment, through the philosophical revolution of Immanuel Kant, and eventually the birth of German Idealism itself.
In the first episode of the series, we explored the philosophy of Spinoza and its reception in Germany, which first spurred the controversy. In the second episode we explored Immanuel Kant’s response to Spinozism and the Pantheism Controversy, where he attempted to stake out a middle ground between reason and faith. In this third episode we’ll tackle Hegel’s efforts to solve the Pantheism Controversy by reconciling Spinoza and Kant-thereby attempting to complete the grand journey from nihilism to Absolute Spirit.
Watch the full series: • The Pantheism Controve...
Dylan Shaul is a PhD candidate in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. His dissertation is titled Hegel's Concept of Reconciliation: On Absolute Spirit. He has also published on Spinoza, Kant, Kierkegaard, Husserl, Adorno, Levinas, Kristeva, and Derrida. See more of his work here: www.dylanshaul.com
00:00 Introduction to Hegel
06:04 Substance and Subject: ‘The True is the Whole’
13:30 Hegel’s Encyclopedia System: Logic, Nature, Spirit
22:21 Hegel on Pantheism
35:51 Hegel on the ‘Death of God’
54:49 Critical Reception of Hegel
1:02:11 Conclusion
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[@SeekersofUnity]

Watch the full series: kzbin.info/aero/PL_7jcKJs6iwU9ZGBNyXrzS28PShgzp3jl

[@bb1111116]

As this series continues (and it seems ends), this is one of the most outstanding philosophy lectures I have ever heard.

[@docjaramillo]

Me too

[@lotharlamurtra7924]

There is Michael Sugrue too who is absolutely Excellent.

[@ahobimo732]

Agreed. I took many philosophy courses in university, and this is far better than the vast majority of those lectures. Truly exceptional quality of research and communication.

[@kennethobrien8386]

Is Hegel a Gnostic?

[@lewisalmeida3495]

Thank you for your excellent podcast, giving us an overview of the importance of Spinoza's philosophy. As a student of Spinoza's philosophy, I have studied Spinoza's Ethics extensively, and I believe to really understand Spinoza, you must live his ideas. I have more than a theoretical concept. After 40 years of work, I now teach, mentor, and coach those who want to live, understand, and love as Spinoza did.

[@Bildgesmythe]

Excellent series. I definitely want to watch this a few times to absorb it all.

[@kimfreeborn]

Best explanation of Hegel's absolute knowing I've heard.

[@oiausdlkasuldhflaksjdhoiausydo]

Let’s be honest, Hegel’s renaissance is here because we finally understood what the hell was Hegel talking about. And this video helped so much… by the way, the podcast SHWEP on western esotericism is an amazing companion to this. It seems to be Hegel just put into philosophy what had already been there in religious form. Fantastic video!

[@thenowchurch6419]

Hegel's philosophy is the natural and logical exposition of Panentheism.

[@Michael-el]

Ausgezeichnet! One of the clearest expositions of Hegel’s core views I’ve ever heard.

[@Efesus67]

Wow, Should is so clear and straight forward.

[@theGuilherme36]

One of the best philosophical videos I've seen on KZbin. As a fan of german philosophy and romanticism, it was a gem. Thank you!

[@xavierharrison7104]

Thank you for your work. I appreciate your summary and commentary! I hope to hear more from you.

[@Vkz1]

Just finished the series - a very, very interesting watch! Thank you!

[@SeekersofUnity]

You’re most welcome. Glad you enjoyed it.

[@evreninancoglu2483]

Excellent! I enjoyed it, much like the absolute spirit enjoys itself. Dylan Shaul effortlessly elucidates the most intricate and complex theories and concepts.

[@SeekersofUnity]

Thank you friend. I’m glad you enjoyed it.

[@robertvann7349]

​@@SeekersofUnity GOD EXISTS ARGUMENT LOGIC SCIENCE 101 LAW OF CONTRADICTION, A is B, illogical impossible contradiction. Lets plug data into formula and critically evaluate result. Take argument to PhD logic science instructor to verify it is an ABSOLUTE God logically exists. A non conscious non intelligent non being caused the effect of B a conscious intelligent beings in the universe That simple, so simple nobody has seen it but me I guess. This is A is B, an ILLOGICAL IMPOSSIBLE CONTRADICTION never evidenced in nature or labs. But, law of non contradiction, formula A isn't B, absolute objective truth is true. A law of abiogenesis caused the effect of A law of abiogenesis A is A, B is B B law of biogenesis caused the effect of B law the f biogenesis No contradiction, absolute truth evidence in nature and labs all day law. These to formulae yield answers that are absolute, I dare you to take the argument to a PhD logic Science instructor.😂🎉❤

[@genghisgalahad8465]

I'm enthralled and inspired by this amazing perennially enlightening series exceptionally guest hosted by Dylan Shaul on Seekers of Unity!! What an epic trilogy and journey from nihilism to enlightenment! Thank You, Zevi and the Seekers of Unity for this timely much much needed, for me, quantum leap into existential philosophy that I will certainly revisit time and again for the scope and magnitude of the the expansion of cosmogony, even as I might be misapplying certain keywords here! Kudos still stands almost as inexpressible as the ineffable! If ever there was a primer! Hegel seems the critical counterbalance and even the whetstone that sharpens and hones the sword, if you will, of Spinoza. Thank you, thank you, thank you! For revivifying my renewal and personal renaissance to see things anew and luckily for the first time! And so that I can also see present extant explorations and discussions from the channel and colleagues with new eyes and a solid cosmic roadmap and illuminated pathway of a kind of philosophical pilgrimage! Must support substantially sooner than later! Wow! A lasting and encouraging sign-off!

[@genghisgalahad8465]

#Nihilsnoesis, if you will, by the philosopher Jon Winteradvent. I am floored. #agsnoesis?

[@genghisgalahad8465]

so we are the finite drops of water in the ocean of Infinity that is God?

[@genghisgalahad8465]

A compassionate concordant journey from Nietzsche to Spinoza to Hegel, with a side of/short stop at/slight detour through Kant and Jacobi! I begin to feel like identification with either of the first three mentioned feels more like a journey and not a destination. It's an epic send-off to do so!

[@ramyafennell4615]

Outstanding lecture Dylan thank you so much and especially for the ending where you bring us back to the beginning of the controversy. The concluding quote was beautifully targetted...spirituality is a quest for every human being and each person is moving forward at their pace in their own political era. Thank goodness Spirit is never at rest. This series made me check out the history of Indian Philosophy coming into Germany at the turn of the 19th C. They had Bhagavad Gita and two Upanishads. It's becoming clearer to me...than ever before ....that every contemporary search for meaning has to refer back to ancient systems of thought. Every teacher of every age has to bring this knowledge of Spirit to the light of awareness. This contribution has helped me so much to understand the floundering around of western culture in its search for meaning. The attachment to the dualism seems fundamental. Thank you so much for raising so many questions and making me work more.

[@chables74]

Thank you, Mr. Shaul and Zevi! This was a lovely series.

[@SeekersofUnity]

You’re most welcome. Thank you for joining us 🙏🏼

[@FortYeah]

I'm just stunned. First time I'm not confused after hearing Hegel's teaching. You are a hell of a professor sir, thank you so much ! Hegel's interpretation of Christianity is mind blowing. Not sure but I think my head just exploded...

[@Xaloxulu]

Wonderful series, thanks!

[@danchiappe]

Wonderful lecture. Thank you for putting this incredible work together!

[@SeekersofUnity]

🙏🏼

[@lunarchandelierpress6986]

So appreciate this excellent, coherent and high level explication for those of us who have (head bowed in shame..) not read Hegel or Kant or Spinoza! Woe is us! In any event, everyone of these philosphers and the others mentioned offer us a deep angle, an advance. No one had a comprehensive system that could replace (it seems) all of religious experience. Yet, who knew Hegel and Spinoza were mystics.? ...Dylan Shaul really brings that aspect forward. One vulnerability (it seems) in each of these philosophers (with the exception of Spinoza) was the insufficiency of the way in which their theories are constructed to envelope, represent or obviate their predecessors. That tendency is so weak and the ideas of the other are always minimized. Thank you again for the energy and care with which the poetry of Hegal is elucidated.

[@asielnorton345]

Another great one

[@jeffphisher3801]

I would love more videos with Dylan he's a great speaker he's some ASMR for me lol

[@eyeofgnosis558]

The following could also be true: Logic = Brahma, Nature = Vishnu, Spirit = Shiva

[@robert0price]

these are so helpful

[@SeekersofUnity]

You’re most welcome

[@siobhan24900]

only watching to see dylan 😻

[@Parsons4Geist]

i hope John Vervaeke watches these terrific three-part series. and wants to talk with you. he is starting to come around to Hegel from the one handed him from analytic tradition

[@eyeofgnosis558]

From several altered states of consciousness, I would agree with Hegel to a point. However, from what I understood from these experiences, Hegel's knowing is but the first step towards the ultimate union with the infinite (or second step if existing is the first), a path that then must pass through the gauntlet of 'understanding' before it becomes once again its own 'be-ing'.

[@FortYeah]

Something beyond religion and philosophy where everything is understood through a revelation that is grasped instantly, without thinking, in order to return to the Spirit. Something like that...

[@kennyfernandez2866]

I disagree. I think Hegel's philosophy is an exposition of that union. I think it is that union. What is left out of his system?

[@ericalves5514]

Finally!!!

[@4891MR]

Free will is technically a contradiction in terms. Mankind is not free in nature: the reason is because man oppresses man. Yet we are free, because our unfreedom is our own doing. The indispensibility of a wrathful God is but a means to idolize the same bad karma. Freedom from will is nirvana.

[@surfism]

Could it be that the culture war is rooted in this very controversy?

[@dewolf6836]

Great point! The culture war is a war to keep the old view of God-out-there in tack, as opposed to allowing this self-realization of humanity to take place.

[@theGuilherme36]

I think yes... the right and left hegelians

[@deeks86]

I would disagree, the culture war is between traditionalists, modernists and post-modernists. They have specific differences within their worldviews. Hence the conflict of values. Tradionalists have literal interpretations of their respective holy books. Modernists value capitalism and have a more pluralistic view and have broken away from the literal interpretation of the holy books. The post-modernists have a disdain for both of these groups, they decree the literal interpretations of the holy books as absurd and baseless and decry the non-egalitarianism and environmental degradation of capitalism. Not alone the insistence on free expression of identity. I'm oversimplifying the culture war to be sure but I think this is a fair characterization.

[@ramyafennell4615]

I seek your clarification....you spoke about Spinoza's 'amorde intellectualus' via the practice of philosophy and our salvation in the love of God. Does Hegel ever refer to this?...or is he making Spinoza a 'straw man' to knock down, to make his own points original.

[@jameswilkinson138]

Compare and contrast the relation of revelation and reason in Rosenzweig and Aquinas.

[@kevincherian8190]

DO MARX NEXT, PLEASE!

[@gyurilajos7220]

Keep seeking. Indeed World Spirit on KZbin Music to my ears Alas the effort of instruction is rarely of much efficacy But never superfluous Transitioning from the love of wisdom to possessing it understanding the structure of being as meaning in spirit etc is post critical as its subsequent articulation in Polanyi Personal Knowledge Tacit Knowing. Very much Hegelian less speculative more being here now

[@animefurry3508]

You must always past through the zero point before you can birth something truly new and if your lucky even progress!

[@lokeshparihar7672]

25:10

[@angeladinapoli5363]

If I can ask, did Hegel ever see the Spirit?

[@kennyfernandez2866]

Obviously. Otherwise, how could he talk in those terms? He is the spirit.

[@Teckno72]

Mage: the Ascension Essences

[@heinzgassner1057]

I don’t agree. Spinoza did not view humans as ‘machines’. Not at all. Spinoza described a beautiful gateway for humans to ‘escape’ the ‘pre-determined’ theater play. A gateway that needs all our best effort of reasoning, but strikes us as ‘intuition’, helping us to ‘melt back’ into the ‘one’ without ever having been anything else than the ‘one’. This is all ‘beyond’ words, space and time, only the powerful language of silence can describe it. Too many words here, too little practice and experience.

[@bradrandel1408]

Wow, nice comment I would like to talk to you I love your view… 🦋🕊🌹

[@kennyfernandez2866]

Well. But if everything dissolves in the one, then nothing can be said about it and it renders the diversity of life meaningless. It is nihilistic in that sense. It just talks about absolution. But it does not talk about creation. The differantiation and the specificity of truth, in all it's forms and colors. It does not see the absolute in it's creation. So by definition it is not absolute. It is just dissolution and death. Just seeing one side of the coin. It only describes the inward movement of spirit. It does not describe its extension.

[@Sirmenonottwo]

It seems like Hegel figured out what essentially happened on some sort of higher plain of human coexistence, but there have been other great men in history whos life an death meant important truths for mankind (like Socrates). So I think it is cool how Christianity can finally be rationalized, but I don't think that is what REALLY happened. It's still just a rationalization.

[@deeks86]

To me Hegel is lacking something in his analysis of substance and subject. To my mind the subjective and the process of negation is an aspect of the all or infinite absolute. While Spinoza might have left this out and obvioiusly didn't have a chance to offer a rebuttal to Hegel's arguments. I suppose I might be labeled reductionistic for that assertion, but I don't think it's a valid point. Is it not the case that Spinoza asserted that to know is to be free? And in order to know one must go through this process of negation, this labor or suffering that Hegel speaks of. For me this is Spinozas attempt at a kind of compatibilist argument concerning free will. When we have a greater understanding of what is and labor to understand what ought to be and how we might achieve those ends we increase our freedom to make choices which lead to good outcomes, however illusory those things may seem as we don't fully understand the causes of our behaviors and thoughts. These are my initial impressions after listening to the substance an subject section. I'm no expert on either of these thinkers and I'm probably not doing the ideas justice.

[@deeks86]

In the third section, "Humanity knows God only insofar.." I get the sense that this statement is only made possible through a Spinozist lens or worldview, quite the pantheistic statement in my opinion. I'd argue that this process is going on in other lifeforms as well, a bit too anthropocentric. How might God know itself in other highly intelligent species elsewhere in the cosmos that we have yet to discover? Perhaps there are beings out there that are far more aware and capable than we are in this regard, its not a negation of Hegel's idea, just an expansion of it to other beings with consciousness. And it seems highly likely given our knowledge of other lifeforms that consciousness exists within them albeit in different ways. I'd also like to add that to me it seems like this is a kind of purpose of consciousness, that life seeks to become ever more aware in order to survive and thrive. The concept of eros as gone into detail by Ken Wilber, although he may not be highly regarded in philosophical circles so I don't know if anyone reading this gets where I'm coming from by referencing him, goes into this idea adequately for me in explaining that idea. Here's a link to a discussion by him going into the idea that I'm trying to share: kzbin.info/www/bejne/m5nOpGmulquNf8k

[@waqaskhanmomand7103]

Enthralled!

[@soakedbearrd]

I think Hegel’s fine tuning of Spinoza’s God, ties some of the loose ends.

[@chables74]

Algormancy!

[@SeekersofUnity]

x2

[@user-om1fp9qj9z]

Did you just make sense of Hegel, putting it into plain English and answering the meaning crisis? Me think so

[@gw1284]

THANK YOU

[@DJWESG1]

British philosophy developed sooner and with more depth than that on the european continent. Much of their thinking tied to Hobbes. Both reason and rationality being spoken in everyday language by commoners and the educated alike.

[@lewiakk5844]

Sounds like the maamer I learnt.

[@SeekersofUnity]

Love it. Which?

[@lewiakk5844]

@@SeekersofUnity any

[@SeekersofUnity]

@lewiakk5844 😎

[@jimhuggard5398]

Bit of an Irish accent there? 🤔 ☘️

[@israelrabbit1943]

"absolut spirit" sounds like an energy drink, or like an christian rock band :v

[@chriskenney4377]

This is a bad quote; but Kierkegaard suggested that, if Hegel's philosophy was nothing more that expansive thought of man, it would be momentous, but if Hegel's thought is expected to inform humanity, it is nothing more than a joke.

[@exlauslegale8534]

Circular epistemology trying to escape immanence...

[@simonkeenangomez]

God becomes man to which is Jesus, and for man to become “like” Jesus. To walk and live like Jesus did. To love and to forgive. Not to become a god.

[@MandyMoorehol]

Hegel was a comedian, he’s literally just joking the whole time. He’s not doing philosophy he’s doing performance art.

[@galvezledoux154]

Elaborate ?

[@MandyMoorehol]

@@galvezledoux154 elaborate on what? The concept of a “comedian”, the concept of “jokes” or the concept of “performance art”?

[@galvezledoux154]

Like HOW IS Hegel a "comedian" ? I know what those words mean obviously

[@MandyMoorehol]

@@galvezledoux154 comedians tell jokes, Hegel is telling jokes in his work, Hegel is a comedian. What exactly are you confused about? I would genuinely like to help but I don’t understand what your question is. You’ve read Hegel, right?

[@Nature_Consciousness]

@@MandyMoorehol Why is he 'telling jokes' in his work?

[@fredrikschussler6115]

Or is it bla bla bla

[@Oogorod]

Философия Гегеля это история безумного человека. Он выдумал Бога. Он выдумал дух. Он называл духом все подряд. Он не дал ему определения. Его философия это откровения душевнобольного человека. Бесполезные