Studia Philosophica

Volume 66, Issue 1, 2019

An Outline of the Interpretation of Hegel’s End of History

This paper is deeply inspired by the penetrating interpretation of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit, called Gibt es eine Welt in Hegels Phänomenologie des Geistes?, written by Tereza Matějčková. The paper starts from the question what the Spirit does, from the viewpoint of timeliness, when it comprehends the Reason as at work in the history and as eternally at work in the history. What the Spirit does is that it inevitably assumes the perspective of the end of history. Nevertheless, this perspective is not interpreted as a step out of the history that denies the timeliness and overlooks the present state of affairs. For the present time is to be comprehended by the Spirit as the very moment into which the eternally active Reason culminates. From the perspective of the end of history or eternality, the Spirit comprehends what is eternally present in the present time (i. e. Reason). For clarification, I briefly contrast Hegel’s perspective with Kant’s and Nietzsche’s view on the end of history and subsequently I suggest that it bears comparison with Benjamin’s famous description of the “angel of his­tory” whose horrified view on the past propels him into the future.