Ohhh Hegel

I feel as if it would be very possible to spend several classroom sessions discussing various parts and passages of Hegel’s book The Philosophy of History and I still would not understand everything. However, I feel like I have found a passage that reminded me of our last blog post talking about why Jared Lee Loughner did what he did. The passage is located on page 37. “But the subject becomes more complicated and difficult when we regard individuals not merely in their aspect of activity, but more concretely, in conjunction with a particular manifestation of that activity in their religion and morality” (37). After dissecting this quote I concluded that Hegel is trying to say that one is able to record history with dates and facts easily such as remembering “individuals… in their aspect of activity.” However, it becomes more complicated recording history when one starts questioning “a particular manifestation of that activity” similar to asking the ‘why’ question. In my opinion I do not think there will ever be concrete descriptions and reasoning behind certain actions or events that are recorded in history unless there are primary sources from that person at that time. I want to link this passage from Hegel to our last blog post talking about why Jared Loughner did what he did. This quote illustrates the fact that sometimes it is impossible to figure out exactly what made or provoked Loughner to open fire. Primary sources are the only way we can understand how such manifestation occurred in the individual. The personal recording that Sam Byck used to prove his thoughts surrounding his reasoning behind his actions would be a perfect example of a primary source that Clarke used in his article. However, without a concrete primary source Hegel verifies that it becomes more complicated when historians attempt to pinpoint the motivation behind the acts recorded and remembered.