Models And Methods In The Philosophy Of Science Book

I had a love/hate relationship with this book. For all of his talk of actuality and potentiality, I feel that Hegel's theories were somewhat unfulfilled, but that may be because I align with the Leftist and Young Hegelian interpreters of Hegel more than with the Rightist interpreters of Hegel. Hegel seemed to take the best of Aristotle and the worst of Plato and merge them together. At times I was saying "Yes, yes, yes. . ." and then I let out a long sigh or a frustrated "Noooo!" (Hegel can be such a tease -- a good read related to this is Marcuse's "Reason and Revolution"). This work (Hegel's "Reason in History") had several contradictions, which are not entirely attributable to the fact that this was a rough work, a patchwork of Hegel's lectures on the philosophy of history collected by his students. It is known that Hegel, for all of the potential and the philosophy of freedom to be found within his work -- influential in Marxism, existentialism and even anarchist schools of thought -- are also riddled with authoritarianism and totalitarianism. It is almost like Hegel's potentiality was hindered, though this work was carried on by others who have given the work radical reinterpretations. At times the work channeled Kant, with its talk of Reason and Duty. At times, it called to mind Tolstoyan free will and determinism -- simply insert the word "Providence" in place of "Spirit" and voila. The work is certainly very influential and certainly merits a re-read in the future (perhaps a different translation?), but for now I will simply let the ideas marinate. I prefer to give the work a Leftist reading but it is impossible to ignore the fascistic elements at the heart of these lectures.

As with the work itself, I was similarly in love and yet troubled by Robert Hartman's (the translator) introduction. I dog-eared nearly every page of it though, so while I may not have agreed with him wholeheartedly, I found his analysis interesting and nonetheless worthwhile.