Subj: Re: [hegel] Re: [hegel-dialognet] Hegel and Christianity 
Date: 12/16/2002 10:45:25 AM Eastern Standard Time
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My remarks were perhaps too harsh.  I simply think Hegelians and Kantians
should both be humble and respectfully carry out their 'quarrel' in tandem,
even as  New Age and other religious initiatives surge and burn out for
reasons German Philosophy points to in part.
Kant and Hegel can hardly compete with the New Age gurus if they don't even
have a clue to Buddhist style enlightenment. But note the underwhelming
Kantian, "What is Enlightenment". History has a funny riddle and these
eastern religions, if explotative, will suffer a catch-22.
Nonetheless, it might be wiser to lose the first round here. You can't win
anyway, especially now that Marxism is on the wane.

I just reviewed Ken Wilbur's The Marriage of Sense and Soul. This man is
better than most New Agers. He knows he has a Kant Hegel problem, but he is
in a hurry. His tactic is to pick on Fichte, 'why didn't this guy meditate?"
Then without hardly mentioning Hegel, he uses Hegel's critique of Kant to
escape from Kant and Hegel both, and charges of metaphysics. He is homefree
at that point, and we will have the New Age metaphysics of Godman, as
Hegelian dirt is shoveled over Kant.
See my point?  

Go see that old movie of Kipling's book, The Man Who Would Be King. A small
village in the Himalayas confuses two adventurers with avatars, and the tale
begins.
The narrator ends up a blind beggar in Calcutta. At least the
Kantians/Hegelians are one step ahead of the gurus in being older and wiser.

So there you have the right approach of the Kant-Hegel two-headed monster. Be
humble and watch these silly new age adventurers burn themselves out. That's
all.
The point of Hegel here is that he is really the first "New Age' movement,
with a difference, he accepts the gains of freedom. So you see the real point
of Hegel, and the strange design of the modern is to protect these modern
gains, in a fragile environment of western cultures where the Gurus will soon
be ultra reactionaries peddling their wares. Don't believe, look at someone
like Gurdjieff.  They want to repackage Hegel and some dialectic reshuffling
the deck without the bad part about the 'masters and slaves', and the messy
details of democracy. These gurus have to be 'masters' and begrudge the
modern world its democracy.  Of course the whole thing has become too polite
for that at this point, but behind the scenes that's the correct dynamics,
clearly visible in the whole game.

So I hardly think then that the purpose of Hegel is to produce a new world
religion! His function, next to Kant, is defensive, in relation to the
Lutherian 'revolt'. In fact, I think Hegel was well aware of "New Age"
movements with his mysterious strain of 'Rosicrucianism', pointed to by Magee
in his book.

So as in the movie, all parties end as 'blind beggars', the man who would be
king.


In a message dated 12/15/2002 10:47:48 AM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

>
> Thanks for your interesting post, let me reflect on it a bit.
> I am a bit miffed here, and don't feel like much discussion since I am
> barred
> from any reply at Hegel@...  Some religion, eh? Unsub the skeptics.
>
> I should say at once I take a Kantian stance here, which is not popular
> among
> Hegelians!
> If Kant left religion in a 'mess', it probably deserved it, and the last
> thing the world needs is another dogmatism about metaphysical questions,
> the
> 'noumenon resolved'.
> I find Hegel fascinating, but the chances of his philosophy making a
> comeback
> as religion is nil at this point, Petro's remarks being close the 'mad
> fanatic', shall we fear an Hegelian Jihad taking over the planet?
> There was some discussion before about Indian religion. Has noone heard of
> the New Age movement? Most people would laugh at the thought of an Hegelian
>
> religion at this point. World religion is taking a radically different
> turn.
>
> The whole point was that Marx actually repackaged Hegel to do that
> new religion number. ! I don't see Hegel's Christianity-so-called as
> relevant
> at this point. Not relevant, but hugely interesting simply as philosophic
> history.
> Surely, Christianity is weakening drastically in every generation, and the
> issues here will seem irrelevant very soon. 
> In any case, like Kant or not, he is the protection of those who don't want
>
> to be exploited by a new metaphysics. So all talk of religion will from now
>
> on revolve around this Kantian question. I have no intention of being duped
>
> by Hegel, and would demand in a Kantian fashion something objective, and
> snort at the claims of dialectic.
>
> I find the discussion odd, don't these guys know the Spinoza connection?
> Hegel simply wouldn't pass the pope's censors with a good sniff test.
> That's actually Hegel's strength, that he picks up on the relevant issue
> that
> Spinoza first dealt with.
>


John Landon
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World History and the Eonic Effect
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