Force in Nature, Freedom in History. Hegel and the neo-spinozistic project of a Natural Human History

Abstract

 This contribution explains the connections between the German lines of the reception of the Ethica and the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus and the formation of Herder’s, Schelling’s and Hegel’s Philosophies of History. It refers to the Philosophy of Unity as a main current but articulates the lines of the reception of the Ethica with the difficulties raised by Spinoza’s explanations for the multiplicity of the religious traditions, as divergent historical ways to the One, in the Tractatus. Hegel’s Lectures on Philosophy of Religion were scrutinized from the angle of their general methodical significance and also from the descriptive point of view. Here, one finds critical keys for the understanding of the philosopher’s perspective regarding Spinoza’s meaning to the speculative method and for the characterisation of the epochs in the History of the Biblical Religions. Hegel’s critique of the Philosophy of Unity personified in Schelling’s appropriation of Spinoza’s conatus was envisaged in order to locate the pivotal point of the idea of an unbroken Natural and Human History. The paper argues that in Hegel’s critique of Schelling’s Spinozism the German lines of Spinoza’s reception were taken as responsible for a vague concept of the Absolute. Such vagueness explains the absence of clarity about the difference between Nature and Spirit (History), particularly in Schelling’s Absolute, and demands a different configuration of the «Real Philosophies» in the philosophical system.