Kierkegaard’s Existentialist Philosophy with Hegel’s Idea of a World Spirit Review
It is imperative to understand that Hegel was a firm believer that the world spirit is simply the total sum of the interaction of humans, be it human culture, life, or thought. He believed that truth is essentially subjective and that every knowledge is human, which thereby implied a total rejection of the notion of the existence of another ‘truth’ that surpasses human intellect. On the other hand, Kant confessed that unattainable truth existed (The School of Life). The philosophy that Hegel insisted on was that he was primarily a methodology for comprehending history’s progress. He asserted that humans’ reasoning is what has been progressively changing every generation. As such, there was no such notion as eternal truths.
Besides, he insisted that thoughts have to be judged based on the historical context and either right or wrong change, respectively. He believed that human knowledge is constantly increasing over time, and as such, human thoughts’ history is progressive (Gaarder). His belief hinged on the fact that the notion of thinking evolved dialectically, whereby a thought leads to its opposite, and then they are combined to come up with an idea, which consists of the best aspects of both. In this case, he maintained that world spirit manifests in three increasing stages: in the person, where it is a subjective spirit; in the community and the state, it becomes objective; whereas in art, religion, and philosophy, it becomes absolute spirit.
On the other hand, Kierkegaard was opposed to the postulations Hegel had brought to the fore. He believed that the historicism and idealism of the notion of Romantics, as implied by Hegel was that it obscured the responsibility of the individual concerning their life (Brown 28). In this case, he founded existentialism, which is the philosophy concerned with the aspect of every person’s existence. As such, he just felt that subjective truths were only useful because they addressed the one particular question of whether the notion of Christianity was true (The School of Life). Therefore, such fundamental questions can only be seen through the notion of faith and the things known through reason.
Works Cited
Brown, Marshall. “Romanticism and enlightenment.” The Cambridge Companion to British Romanticism (1993): 25-47.
Gaarder, Jostein. “Sophie’s World.”
The School of Life. PHILOSOPHY – Hegel. 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5JGE3lhuNo. Accessed 20 Mar 2022.
The School of Life. PHILOSOPHY – Soren Kierkegaard. 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9JCwkx558o. Accessed 20 Mar 2022.
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Question 
Hegel and Kierkegaard
Watch the videos on Hegel and Kierkegaard.
。 Hegel Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5JGE3|huNo
• Kierkegaard:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9JCwkx5580
Step 2:
Respond to the following prompt using the rubric below:
Compare and contrast Kierkegaard’s existentialist philosophy with Hegel’s idea of a “world spirit”.
Use resources from:
- Sophie’s World
- The YouTube videos, PowerPoint slides, and any other resources to back your response
Rubric:
• Write a minimum 5 paragraphs with a minimum of 5 sentences per paragraph (25 points)
• Response provides a clear compare and contrast of the topic (75 points)
Proper MLA format with citation within the assignment along with a Reference Page at the end (25 points)