Born: August 27, 1770, Stuttgart, Germany. Died: November 14, 1831. A key figure in the development of his era’s articulation of German idealism. The political philosophies of German thinkers such as Karl Marx and Friedrich Nietzsche find their genesis in Hegel’s reasoning. An admirer of the French Revolution. He believed the spirit of revolution was travelling, and while writing “The Phenomenology of Spirit,” his impression was that the revolution’s next target would be Germany. “Left Hegelians” interpreted Hegel’s works as calling for a revolution that advocates atheism in religion, and democracy in politics. Hegel taught that cultural and societal fulfillment cannot be reached until the state absorbs the family and civil society. An individual’s “supreme duty is to be a member of the state.” “Only through being a member of the state that the individual himself has objectivity, truth, and ethical life…[and] are happy even to sacrifice their lives for the State.” Late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century applications of Hegel’s philosophies shaped the thinking of groups like the Fabian Society, Marxism, and Fascism.
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