The simple finding or faith that the Reason governs the History is the motivation of Hegel's research in his “Philosophy of History”. And the ultimate end of this Reason is its concrete reality, that is, the State.
In the course of what Hegel calls philosophical history, due to the realization of Reason, he perceives the great moments in which the Absolute Spirit, with its intrinsic quality or end in itself which is the freedom, he struggled to overcome himself in a continuous and progressive movement (progress of human consciousness). These moments are special because they reveal what is potential in each human act (in this case, the historical man). while being endowed with Will and private passions, seeking to achieve their own interests, men go, through these moments, overcoming and suppressing their immediate needs. But the end of each particular action also contains a general objective, according to Hegel. And when one action joins another and from an individual it is expressed, it carries within it all the necessary realization and transformation at each time.
An ordinary individual has his immediate needs, his own interests, his passions, etc.; it aims, therefore, in every voluntary act, to suppress such needs, interests and passions. And although their particular acts potentially contain what is universal, they are unable or even unwilling to carry them out, being satisfied with what they have achieved for themselves. the big ones universal historical individuals, men who understood their time, seized the opportunity, opposed and surpassed the laws and established rights in force at their time. These men, also with their particular passions, united in act these passions and the potential of universality (of the general will) in them. contained, expressing the antithesis that is the necessary means for the transformation of its reality, which, in turn, synthesizes the interest of Reason. But despite their greatness and unlike ordinary individuals, they were not happy men. Even unaware of the guiding idea, they were excellent men (historical) because they built important parts of Universal History which is, for Hegel, progress in the consciousness of freedom.
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If, therefore, for Hegel, Reason governs History and individuals are endowed with a capacity to fulfill the interests of their passions, allied to the universal, this being the result of the particular activity and its denial, one can question how the relationship of the particular with the universal. In the action of an individual (the universal history), the relationship between private and universal interest is inseparable and takes place through participation. It means that this individual exposes himself to the dangers generated by his action and wears out in oppositional conflicts, as a private agent, and that the idea, which is the universal, remains unscathed, untouchable. This is what Hegel calls the "Cucle of Reason".
The Cunning of Reason consists in safeguarding the idea, allowing the passions to act for themselves, to experiment losses and damages so that in this struggle and in this loss something always stands out, always exceeds something positive, affirmative. It is the price of sacrifice for the progressive awareness of freedom and which justifies the actions of great men not only immediately, but throughout history.
By João Francisco P. Cabral
Brazil School Collaborator
Graduated in Philosophy from the Federal University of Uberlândia - UFU
Master's student in Philosophy at the State University of Campinas - UNICAMP
Philosophy - Brazil School