Single Idea 21758

[catalogued under 23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 1. Existentialism]

Full Idea

For Hegel, the absolute truth of humanity is that human beings have no fixed, given identity, but rather determine and produce their own identity and their world in history, and that they gradually come to the recognition of this fact in history.

Gist of Idea

Humans have no fixed identity, but produce and reveal their shifting identity in history

Source

report of Georg W.F.Hegel (works [1812]) by Stephen Houlgate - An Introduction to Hegel 01

Book Reference

Houlgate,Stephen: 'An Introduction to Hegel' [Blackwell 2005], p.17


A Reaction

This quintessentially existentialist idea, most obvious in Sartre, seems to have originated with this view of Hegel's.