Hegel: From Nihilism to Enlightenment

Dylan Shaul presents the one of the most important events in modern philosophy, the Pantheism Controversy sparked by the reception of Spinoza in 18th century Germany. The Controversy involved the greatest German philosophers of the period, and laid the foundations for the next 200 years of European thought. In the balance of the Pantheism Controversy hung the fate of the Enlightenment and Modernity; the fate of faith and reason, religion and philosophy; the fate of freedom, of the immortal soul, and even of God Godself. Our story will take us from the renegade Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza, to the heyday of the German Aufklärung or Enlightenment, through the philosophical revolution of Immanuel Kant, and eventually the birth of German Idealism itself. In the first episode of the series, we explored the philosophy of Spinoza and its reception in Germany, which first spurred the controversy. In the second episode we explored Immanuel Kant’s response to Spinozism and the Pantheism Controversy, where he attempted to stake out a middle ground between reason and faith. In this third episode we’ll tackle Hegel’s efforts to solve the Pantheism Controversy by reconciling Spinoza and Kant—thereby attempting to complete the grand journey from nihilism to Absolute Spirit. Dylan Shaul is a PhD candidate in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. His dissertation is titled Hegel's Concept of Reconciliation: On Absolute Spirit. He has also published on Spinoza, Kant, Kierkegaard, Husserl, Adorno, Levinas, Kristeva, and Derrida. See more of his work here: https://www.dylanshaul.com 00:00 Introduction to Hegel 06:04 Substance and Subject: ‘The True is the Whole’ 13:30 Hegel’s Encyclopedia System: Logic, Nature, Spirit 22:21 Hegel on Pantheism 35:51 Hegel on the ‘Death of God’ 54:49 Critical Reception of Hegel 1:02:11 Conclusion Join Seekers: https://discord.gg/EQtjK2FWsm https://instagram.com/seekersofunity https://www.twitter.com/seekersofu https://facebook.com/seekersofunity Support Seekers: https://www.patreon.com/seekers https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=RKCYGQSMJFDRU