HEGEL’S CONCEPTION OF HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY

Abstract

Discontinuity with the tradition of interpretation of history of philosophy as ananthology of opinions took place in Hegel’s philosophy. The essence of his standpoint is expressedin thesis that history of philosophy is, by all means, a philosophy. As a movement of thespirit and presentation of his development, philosophy and its history express themselves throughwhat Hegel calls development of concrete. Establishment of history of philosophy such as this isenabled by distinguishing history of outer circumstances from internal history as history of mind.The later is always a result of all previous philosophies, and it preserves them by simultaneouslyexceeding them. In the same manner that an idea progresses in its logical notion, it also showsits development in history of philosophy. As a reflection of the current level of spirit’s evolution,every philosophy is a product of its own time, and, for that reason, it presents the only possibleway of (philosophical) spirit’s existence in that particular moment. Hegel steps out against understandingthe difference as contradiction, and indicates that the substance of spirit is actually in theunity of identity and difference. In this way, diversity of philosophies in history of philosophy isexplained as indispensable mode of philosophy’s own existence.