051 - Realizing Reason in History - Not by Proclamation but by Action

Hegel was clear: history is a slaughter-bench.  Depressing?  Of course.  But does history also allow the increase of rationality and freedom?  Indeed it does. 

This is often accomplished by world historical figures who inspired great battle victories such as Alexander, Washington, Lincoln, and Churchill.  And it was often unknown to themselves just what great forward progress they enabled.

This episode discusses war from the standpoint of conflict resolution resulting in a better outcome. The opposite being a regression, not a progression. .

Freedom is not something to just shout from the mountain tops,  It must be earned, fought for.  And those cultures that embraced it often had the upper hand in warfare, starting with the Athenians at Marathon.  They had a purpose - a reason - not just an order.  

Transcript

Gregory Novak 0:01

Hello. This is Gregory Nowak. This is the cunning of Geist episode 51. Welcome back. The purpose of this podcast is to explore philosophy psychology and science. With an emphasis on the great philosopher, George Wilhem Friedrich Cagle. Some central points of this podcast are one. That there was more going on in the world. Didn't blind purposeless, naturalistic materialism. And what is this? It's called Geist in German. Translated as mind or spirit in English. Two. That evolution is central to the universe. Three, that there is no separate higher realm, but there is a higher realm spirit within us all. And for that, we are all part of an historical process of increasing the consciousness of spirit. Which leads to greater freedom and rationality in the world. And that brings us to the topic of this episode. There's certainly been. And historical process of increasing freedom and rationality in the world over the centuries, over the millennia. And at the same time. However, this progress is often, most often the result of bloodshed. One of Hegel's most famous quotes, addresses this. He said, cool. Regarding history is the slaughter Ben shit, which the happiness of peoples, the wisdom of states and the virtue of individuals who have been victimized. The question in voluntarily arises to what principle to what final aim. These enormous sacrifices have been offered in quote. And he warns that any periods of happiness are actually times in history, then marching forward of Geist is stalled. He says, quote history is not the soil in which happiness grows. The periods of happiness in it are the blank pages of history and quote. So, what is the goal here in history? Well, as I said in the intro, the, the goal is. Increasing awareness of spirit. Within us so that by, so recognizing it, we can make the world become freer and more rational. That's the purpose. And this purpose is a long struggle and it's being worked out through history. again, there's no separate realm. There's no puppet master pulling the strings here. It's up for us to accept the challenge. And make things happen. And as Hegel makes clear, this often has resulted. in bloody and horrific wars and, you know, a study of history. Really the history of books you often read about Kings and Queens, dictators presidents. As well as cultural contributions are at work, inventions, religions, philosophies, and so forth. But careful examination shows that the history of the world, unfortunately, is essentially one of violent confrontation, one after another, after another, after another. I've tried against tribe group against group nation against nation. Now it's clear when countries go to war, they are not doing so to further the advancement of Geist in the world. That's not their stated objective. But what I'm going to be discussing this in this episode is how war. While being the dark side of history. Is actually central to humanity increasing its freedom and rationality through the dialectical process of confrontation and resolution. At least so far. Now. Let me be clear. I'm not advocating more by any stretch. And certainly when groups are attacked. Uh, they ever right. To defend themselves. And I'm not saying that a logically superior and free your nation is any right to attack another nation. Not at all. If this nation is less free or less rational, they, that's not a basis for. for starting a war with that nation, I'm not advocating this let me be clear on this. I'm not advocating actually anything here other than the progress of freedom and rationality in the world through peaceful means. But what I will be showing is, is though. Throughout history. The side. Of the fight that had the freer society that had the more rational state often prevailed. Not always there are exceptions, but I believe. Over the fullness of time. This trend is correct. And the reason this is so is because the freer nation, the freer tribe, the freer group has a greater motivation to win than the less free nation tribe or group. And this almost has a Darwinian ring to it. Uh, the survival of the fittest may include value in greater freedom and rationality as part of being the fittest. We covered in the last episode that Klaus Witz identified three factors in war and emotional element of the people, the policy of the state and the randomness of the actual fighting and the advance of humanity is now one of them. However we will be discussing how the evidence suggests that freedom does in fact have a role to play. In conflicts. And it. Really in general points to who is more likely to win these kinds of flex. It's where the smart money. Bets. Now. This. Knowledge of freedom can be conscious or unconscious among peoples leaders and soldiers. but I will be attempting to show how, when armies are fighting for their freedom, when one side. Has people that are more or less free versus another side, they're just subjugated soldiers being told to fight. That this can be common advantage in warfare for the F for the freer side. Can lead to more battles and wars being won. And as a result, the cause of freedom and irrationality among civilizations is increased. So. In a Darwinian sense, having people be free, feel free. It may make them want to fight to defend this freedom. That's what I believe in the want to fight. and when to a greater extent that those being forced to fight. And someone's not free. Also when people sense that they're leaders on the right side of history. Uh, they will tend to follow their leaders more, more willingly. And prove to be more effective in fighting than someone that just follows orders from a leader whose aims are unknown or irrelevant. So that's my premise. Now let's take a look at history to see. what supports this? Well, And his lectures on the philosophy of history Hagle than us three general levels. Of of freedom. First is the most ancient where only one person was free, the king or the ruler or the Pharaoh. And all the other people in the land were servants to the one king. The next stage is where a group of people are free, but not all. It was only later that the concept of all people are free. Took hold. And we covered this in detail in episode 20. Last year. Now I recognize to a certain extent as do many scholars, that this view of Hagle can have a certain Eurocentric view of the world and history. Particularly as he associates Christianity with the last stage and, the Greeks and Romans with this, the middle stage of some being free. Now. We covered Hagle. Eurocentric views and detail in episode 32 on racism and the dark side of the enlightenment. So I'm not going to go over that again. Uh, if you want to listen, it's episode 32. However the key point is to recognize that progression of freedom. Within the world and how this idea spread. And certainly there are many ways that it can be adopted through, The rationality through faith, through philosophy. But what I want to center on is how it can be spread through the winning of battles. And. Again, my thesis is that when people have freedom within a state, they're more willing to fight harder and fight smarter. Than if they do not have this freedom. Now. Before I get into. some more backup. Obviously there are exceptions to this, this thesis. There, there are exceptions where despotic rulers have triumphed over for your people. There are wars were free. People fight other free people. And when desk spots go edit against each other. But I believe a review of history shows the following to be the case that the world has been evolving into a freer, more rational place, very slowly, but the progress is certainly there. If you look over centuries over millennia, And significant war. Has it played a major role in achieving this and advancing freedom? And. There may be setbacks in the future. And I do not have a crystal ball. As Hegel said, the olive Minerva takes flight at dusk, meaning that we really understand history after the fact. But I do believe the trend is clear. If one looks at the broad sweep of history. Now one more point. I will be focusing primarily on battles. In the west. And that's because the history of the west is better known to me. However, I'm not saying that the east is somehow lacking here that, that, that, that the west is superior to the east. And that's saying that at all. Uh, I really believe we are one world. We are one people all over it, but there are certainly differences between the cultures and the groups. And we must respect that. And. And support that. now. Just an example. We've discussed here before how the in the east, they tend to view things more in a circular fashion where in the west it's more linear. The N yang symbol, circular symbol of the east shows the circular concept. sodas. much of the, the classic work, the Chinese E Ching, which we discussed back in episode 30 last year. And the Western view is probably. Better exemplified by a linear view of things. historical linear view of time. and. It may come to pass that the circular paradigm. Ends up being perceived as working better, even for human advancement. and I believe that if one gets deep into Hagle, the circular pattern emerges as well. Well both circular and historical or our work with Hagle, but. More on that in a future episode. Another difference east and west. In general is the difference between the focus on family and on the individual. Well, of course, family is of great importance east and west in all cultures. It's central. Many, however, pointed out that there seems to be more emphasis put on family in the east and more emphasis put on the individual in the west, the rugged individual. And perhaps I'll do an entire episode and this as well in the future. But my point is that in referring to these Western battles, I'm not saying that the west is superior or deserves more attention. Not at all. What I am saying though, is that freedom and rationality are on the Ascension and that the conflicts I shall speak of provides some evidence for this. Okay. Let's get into it. The origin of this hypothesis of mine goes back to ancient Greece. And the biggest reason being that Greece is generally regarded as the birthplace of democracy and the notion of a free citizen. Is generally acknowledged by historians that the first really discernible concept of the free citizen was an Asian Greece. Beginning about the eighth century BCE. And the various city states. It was not universal women and slaves could not be citizens, but, but it did. A lot of freedom for some, some were free. And the reason this is so important is that many scholars believe that in the Greco Persian wars, 4 99 to 4 49 BC. The fact that the Greeks had this form of democracy helped them win the long war with Persian. Uh, Persia was ruled by one man Derrius, and then later his sons are CS. It was an autocracy and there's nothing equivalent to democracy there. Let me provide a quote describing this quote, the Polis. Was grounded in the rule of law, which meant that no, man, no matter who, who he might be was master and all men were subject to the same rules. It was also grounded in the notion of citizenship. The idea that every man born from the blood of the community, He has a Sharon power and responsibility. It meant the Greeks were willing to live, fight and die for their Polis and quote. No, they did not have to be coerced to fight. They were willing to fight and die for the city state. There was another factor. Very increased, willingness to fight, allowed them to advance their military techniques and prowess. To quote, Greek scholar dam, Pritchard quote. Ancient Athens developed democracy to a higher level than any other state before modern times. It was the leading cultural innovator of its age. The state is rightly revered for its political and cultural achievements. What is less well known is its extraordinary record of military success. Athens transformed ancient warfare and became one of the ancients world's superpowers. There was a strong case that democracy was a major reason for the success and quote. And here's another quote from pitcher quote, more than any other Polis, the state invented or perfected new forms of combat strategy and military organization. It was directly responsible for raising the scale of Greek warfare by an order of magnitude. This represented a qualitative change from his military record before the democracy and quote. Scholars often point to the Athens victory at marathon versus the Persians and later to the sea battle at Salem, this is being decisive wins. But not only for Athens for democracy itself. And as many scholars contained for Western civilization itself, you can see this just by doing a search of the literature, finding an article published earlier this year called the battle of marathon saved Western civilization 2,500 years ago. There's this quote. On the battle of marathon that I found a quote throughout history, its significance in symbolism have been frequently cited. The first time that a democratic and free state, the nucleus of all traditionally Western ideas defeated a despotic Eastern invader and preserved its unique traditions that would one day be adopted around the world. The reality is perhaps more complex. It's likely the marathon's fame will last for centuries. Marta comment, quote. And it's not that Athens never lost another battle. As I mentioned, there are exceptions. And for example, in the Peloponnesian wars, Athens font, Sparta, two Greek states going head to head. 4 31 to 4 0 4 BCE. Democratic Athens was defeated by the oligarchic Sparta, a less free city state. Athens was later to regain some of its power. And the concept of democracy survive. Not long after this Alexander, the great, who was a Greek Macedonian conquered much of the Mediterranean world and far into the Eastern world. While his motives are debated. He did seem to promote many values associated with freedom and rationality. This is probably no surprise is the teacher was Aristotle. And just as an aside, this completed, perhaps the greatest four generational toodle is in the history of Western thought. Plato was a student of Socrates and was directly influenced by Socrates Aristotle in turn was a student of Plato. It was also directly influenced by Plato. And then from three generations of philosophers, we turned to Alexander who was taught directly by Aristotle. Alexandra was born in three fifty six BCE and died in 3 23 BC. At the marriage of 33. he was able to conquer all of Greece and then the entire Persian empire and then well into India and Egypt as well. As a result, Greek culture spread. Some key points about Alexander. He. Tended to allow the Lancy Congress to maintain their customs under one coordinated oversight. He, in today's terms, he would be considered a globalist and many of the lands. He conquered, considered him a hero, even a God because of this. He founded many cities in his name, perhaps the most well-known one being Alexandria in Egypt. And which became the intellectual capital of the world. Its famous library held some 700,000 scrolls. It's the greatest bank of knowledge in the world at the time. Now one can not say that it was the freedom and rationality of the Greek culture alone that made all this possible. But one can certainly see that Alexander has Greek background, the intellectual tradition. The worldview contributed to his military genius is his view of how to handle the conquer territories in his ruling style. As a result of Alexander. Greek became the first common language. As the Lancy Concord learned it. Um, and speaking of Alexander, this would be a good time to bring up Hegel's notion of world historical individuals. To quote, Robert Tucker. Quote, according to Hagle, universal history is the realization of the idea of reason in a succession of national spirits. These are manifest in the deeds of heroes of world, historical individuals, such as Alexander, the great Caesar and Napoleon and quote. And explains that these individuals are not always aware of the true reasons for the great goals they're accomplishing. He says, quote, It is not actualized as a consequence of men consciously adopting it as their ideal and striving to translate it into reality through the mode of life and Conduct it is not as, or through the citation of reason. That reason is realized in history and quote. So, how has it accomplished? Well, Hagle provides the explanation. Let me quote, Hagle. Cool. Such are all great historical men whose own particular aims involve. Those large issues, which are the will of the world spirit. They may be called heroes in as much as they derive their purposes and their vocation, not from the calm, regular course of things sanctioned by the existing order. But from a concealed font one, which is not attained to phenomenal present existence from the inner spirit, still hidden beneath the surface, which impinging on the outer world is an a shell, burst it into pieces. Because it is another Colonel. Then that, which belonged to the shell and question, they are men, therefore who appear to draw the impulse of their life from themselves. And his deeds have produced a condition of things in a complex of historical relations, which should appear to be only their interest in their work. Such individuals had no consciousness of the general idea. They were unfolding. while prosecuting those aims of there. So on the contrary, they were practical political men, but at the same time, they were thinking men who had an insight into the requirements of the time, what was right for development. This was the very truth for their age, for their world and quote. Hagle goes on. Great Manafort purposes to satisfy themselves. Not others. Whatever prudent designs and counsels, they might've learned from others. It would be the most limited and inconsistent features in their career. For it was they who best understood affairs from others learned and approved, or at least acquiesced in their policy. For that spirit, which had taken this fresh step in history is the inmost soul of all individuals, but in a state of unconsciousness, which the great men in question aroused. They're fellows, therefore follow these soul leaders. For, they feel the irresistible power of their own inner spirit. That's embodied. If we go into CAS to look at the fate of these world historical persons. Who's vocation. It wants to be the agents of the world spirit. We shall find. It to have been no happy one. They attained no common joint. Their whole life was labor in trouble. Their whole nature was not else, but their master passion. When their object is a tan, they fall off like empty halls from the Colonel. They die early, like Alexander. They are murdered like Caesar transported to St. Helena, like Napoleon and quote. This is what we're referring to with the title of this podcast, the cutting of guys. And this inner kernel is about reason about freedom and about love as well. There've been many such individuals throughout history, George Washington, for one, I believe there would not have been any United States without him. He was a central individual. And the new country that the new country could rally around. And Abraham Lincoln is certainly another, certainly a world historical figure. In my view. You know, over 360,000 union soldiers fighting for the north, gave the ultimate sacrifice in that war. For what reason? Why not just let the south secede from the country with slavery, they fought and died for two reasons. To hold the country together and to make it free. I believe many in the north understood this exactly under Lincoln's command. And this is in line with what Hagle said that they quoted earlier. Quote. They're fellows, therefore follow these soul leaders for the field, the irresistible power of their own inner spirit, thus embodied and quote. I also believe Winston Churchill played such a role in galvanizing the British people to withstand the Nazi onslaught. And rarely this country and its allies to defeat Hitler. And what about today? Well, the advance of freedom throughout the world. Following the fall of the Soviet union in 1991. Had many proclaiming that the end of history had arrived at liberal democracies that finally triumphed. And we did the entire last episode on this. Say goodbye to the end of history, episode 50. And then we said, there's no end of history. That Warren misery unfortunately continues as witnessed by the Warren Ukraine. While it is too early to say how it will turn out the stunning success of the Ukrainians and defending their nation speaks volumes for what we have been discussing when you're fighting for your own freedom. And not just on orders from above, you have a lot more at stake and much greater motivation. Another potential conflict looming in the horizon is the authoritarian Chinese government controlled by the Chinese communist party. And how it is structured so differently from Western nations. And what is important to understand is China's gaining in so many areas are gaining economically militarily, technologically. And as they are gaining, it appears as well that the west in the United States in particular may be weakening. Internal dissension is very high. And there's a debt cycle that threatens to undermine the dollar as the world's currency. The United States still has chimed in many areas, but China is emerging as a clear rival to Western dominance. And we'll see how this plays out in the fullness of time. So to summarize. We have seen that wars and conflict are part of history. Perhaps they are synonymous with history as Hagle suggests. And Hey Galean so ablation at dialectic often occurs through conflict, leading to resolution. And while terribly awful wars can also improve conditions at the end of the day. At times by resulting in greater freedom and rationality. Prevailing. And we can look back and be thankful that the Greeks were not defeated in the early stages of their democracy, setting the stage for some of the best philosophy and art the world has seen. And we can appreciate the multicultural efforts of Alexander and bringing the Greek world and its values to the entire Mediterranean middle east. And more recently we can appreciate the great American civil war and its ending slavery in the country. And of course the 20th centuries, great wars to the feet fascism. As Hegel says freedom and rationality are a kernel within all of us and it's up to us to allow it to express itself through right. Action. Freedom and reason are not achieved by shouting it from the mountaintops. It is our hands and our legs, our deeds. That bring it about. So that's it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. Please follow the podcast, Facebook page at cutting of Guice, where I'll be listing all the reference incited here. And I often post relevant comments. Between episodes on this page. So please be sure to check it out. And you can follow me on Twitter also at cunning of Geist. Be sure to like rate and review this podcast wherever you listen. And please tell your like-minded friends about it. If you enjoy it, spread the word. And feel free to share these episodes on social media. And lastly, if you're not a member of the Hagle study group on Facebook, please consider joining. We'd love to have you. This is Gregory Nowak. This is the cunning of Geist. See you next time.