Sublime

Kant pictured man as a being capable of following a rational moral law, but also liable to be swayed from it by the non-rational desires which have their origin in our physical nature. To act morally is thus always a struggle.

The mystical had to be stripped of personal transcendence, of any real, direct encounter with a personal God. For Hegel, history held together reason and a driving Romantic impulse for the mystical (particularly in nature). Spirit (Geist) was still in the world, but it was inextricably bound in the unfolding of history, not in transcendent othernes

What makes Parmenides historically important is that he invented a form of metaphysical argument that, in one form or another, is to be found in most subsequent metaphysicians down to and including Hegel. He is often said to have invented logic, but what he really invented was metaphysics based on logic.

Wenn dies die Welt ist, dann keimt hier die Ungewissheit. Das ethische Problem entsteht am Fluchtpunkt von Freiheit und Zwang, den das Leben aufwirft.

Marxists thought humanity was destined to move through determined stages towards socialist paradise; this left little room for the idea that each of us is personally responsible for what we do.

comme le prototype d'une nature organique qui se trouve mystérieusement en accord avec la marche de l'univers ; nous voyons que les formes de son développement reflètent symboliquement les divers âges de la vie. Goethe est dans sa jeunesse exubérant comme le feu ; à l'âge d'homme, il est d'une activité réfléchie et dans sa vieillesse sa pensée est

If Hegel suffered from some of the problems latent within Western thought, he was also the most developed repository of its promise.

The only freedom that exists is of a metaphysical character. In the physical world freedom is an impossibility. Accordingly, while our several actions are in no wise free, every man's individual character is to be regarded as a free act. He is such and such a man, because once for all it is his will to be that man. For the will itself, and in itsel