[Lecture Four] Modern Philosophy: Kant to the Present
by Dr. Leonard Peikoff
Total Time: 2 hours, 38 minutes
Course summary: Presented as two complementary twelve-lecture courses—Founders of Western Philosophy: Thales to Hume and Modern Philosophy: Kant to the Present—The History of Philosophy covers the whole of western philosophy from its discovery in Ancient Greece to the twentieth century, including Objectivism. Dr. Peikoff argues that philosophy is the means by which we can understand any human culture and, more broadly, the history and changing course of a civilization. Read more »
In this lecture: The philosophy of Hegel represents the culmination of the attack on existence and identity. Dr. Peikoff explains how Hegel’s rejection of the Kantian noumenal world severed philosophy from its concern with existence apart from consciousness. He explains the theory of the dialectical nature of reality according to Hegel which ultimately leads to the coherence theory of truth. Peikoff explains the authoritarian political consequences of Hegel’s thought. He concludes with a series of objections and answers to Kant’s basic ideas.
Study Guide
This material is designed to help you digest the lecture content. You can also download below a PDF study guide for the entire course.
| On what grounds does Hegel reject the Kantian idea of things in themselves? |
| How does Hegel escape the mistakes he believes that Kant made in reference to reality? |
| Why does Hegel’s analysis result in a radical primacy of consciousness? |
| Explain how Hegel argues for Idealism in his metaphysics. |
| Why is Being the most basic category for Hegel? And how is it the same as Non-Being? |
| How does the dialectic process result in a physical world? |
| What does Hegel think is the ultimate reconciliation of the Absolute? |
| Why does Hegel’s idealism in metaphysics imply an authoritarian politics? |
| What are the special individuals who act historically according to Hegel? |
| What is the coherence theory of truth? How does it differ from the correspondence theory? |
Q&A Guide
Below is a list of questions from the audience taken from this lecture, along with (approximate) time stamps.
| 2:21:12 | The basic contradiction in Hegel’s system appears to be at the beginning, in claiming that pure being is nothing. Could you give an Objectivist refutation of this? |
| 2:22:40 | How did Hegel decide with any dialectical chain he started when to end it? Why isn’t the synthesis just the thesis for a further progression? |
| 2:24:53 | If for Hegel the truth of ideas is based on their coherence with other ideas, does this not mean their consistency or non-contradiction with other ideas? |
| 2:27:29 | Doesn’t Hegel’s identity of opposites then require that all ideas are both true and false? |
| 2:29:00 | Is Hegel not relying on the law of non-contradiction to test coherence? |
| 2:31:08 | If the “real” you, according to Hegel, is subservience to the State, who is to say what the “real” State should consist of? Wouldn’t the people who are in power also be under the same influence of the lower levels of the dialectic process? Therefore, who is to rule? Is it left to the progression of heroes? |
| 2:32:18 | Please explain how we can prove the devil does not exist. |
| 2:36:22 | Is the view widely held in social science that truth is determined by intersubjective consensus of opinion derived most directly from Kant or Hegel? |
| 2:37:10 | Has Ayn Rand’s topic for discussion at the Ford Hall Forum been decided? If so, what is it? |