Hegel 's General Introduction to the Philosophy of History

Hegel 's General Introduction to the Philosophy of History

http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hegel/works/hi/introduction.htm

quoted :

I. The 3 metods of writing History

page 4-5 :

1. In these orations these men expressed the maxims of their people, of their own personality, the consciousness of hteir political situation, and the principles of their moral and spiritual nature, their aims and actions.

What the historian puts into their mouths is not a borrowed consciousness but the speaker's own mind.

2. Only when one stands on high ground can one survey the situation and note every detail, not when one has to peer up from below through a small hole.

page 6

3. But the individuality of spirit which must characterize a writer who belongs to a certain cultural period is frequently not in accord with te spirit that runs through the period he writes about.

The spirit that speaks out of th writer is quite different from that of the times he describes.