Hegel has the reputation of being a mastermind of authoritarianism and totalitarianism. But a close reading of his famous sentence “Everything that is, is reasonable” shows that he means “Everything that is reasonable, must be.” From here it is first demonstrated that Hegel's concept of “the actuality of the ethical idea” is a democratic theory of law and freedom. From here it is finally argued that in Hegel history does not serve as a past-oriented transfer of legitimacy, but as a future-oriented orientation and obligation, so that there are prospects of a liberal narrative in Hegel's philosophy of history. For, as he emphasizes in his “Philosophy of Right”: "Only the infinite, the Idea, is actual."

Speaker

Karsten Fischer, Ludwig Maximilians University