1.20. The Influence of Hegel On 19th, 20th, and 21st Century Philosophy, Psychology, and Politics Good evening ladies and gentlemen! This forum is designed for philosophy students of all ages and types -- beginning, mid-level, and more advanced -- I hope to appeal to you all. Philosophy is the great-great grandfather of all human subject areas -- including both those subject areas that are usually classified inside the realm of philosophy as well as those subject areas that are usually classified outside of it. A sample of the generally classified inside subject areas that we will at least touch upon, if not dwell upoin, includes: epistemology, ontology, ethics, realism vs. idealism, narcissism vs. altruism, Dionysianism vs. Appolonianism, dualism vs. wholism, structuralism (constructionism) vs. deconstructionism, rationalism vs. empiricism, spiruality vs. sensuality, being vs. becoming, living vs. dying, contact vs. alienation... A sample of the generally classified outside subject areas that we will at least touch upon if not dwell upon includes: psychology, politics, law, economics, science, medicine, religion, art, music, sports and recreation, leisure, hobbies...the list could go on and on. Basically, we are talking about all elements of human culture as well as our relationship with the natural world around us and if we are a religious person, our relationship with God. We are talking about all areas of human thinking, feeling, doing, being, becoming -- in essence the dynamic relationship between human philosophy and human psychology -- and all areas extending beyond this. Philosophy provides the first floor (if not the basement foundation) for all of human culture. It provides our reason for living (or dying), our reason for being and becoming, our reason for being alive and contactful, or alternatively, our reason for being distant and alienated. Philosophy motivates and explains our individual and collective, cultural and counter-cultural, inner and outer, psychology of thinking, feeling, doing, being, becoming.... It is our reason d'etre. Philosophy and psychology are intimately and inseparably -- except in the classroom --entwined. Hegel's Hotel: The Gap Multi-Integrative Dialectic (MID) School and Forum of Philosophy-Psychology-Politics... starts with the underlying assumption that Hegel was the most important philosopher in Western history -- or at least relative to what we are doing here. You are welcome to debate this if you wish but even in your debate -- your opposition -- you will have to acknowledge the value of Hegel's philosophy because Hegel created -- or at least he summarized, simplified, and popularized the creation of the dialectic -- the philsophy of opposition, and the philosophy of integrating opposing perspectives (what became popularized as the triadic cycle of 1. thesis; 2. anti-thesis; and 3. synthesis). This was arguably Hegel's most important contribution to philosophy. His second major contribution to philosophy was his creation of the term -- alientation, a term and concept that would become central to the soon-to-be blossoming development of the human existential movement, a movement that Hegel can be given credit for stimulating its birth. His third major contribution to philosophy -- connected to his first -- was his exposition of an alternative and partly complementary theory of evolution -- historical dialectical evolution (1. thesis; 2. anti-thesis; 3. synthesis; and 4. repeat at a new and arguably 'superior' stage of development) -- as compared and contrasted to the more publicly (in)famous Darwinian theory of evolution that would shock the world later in the 19th century. Hegal was the ultimate Western philosopher -- or at least the ultimate dialectic Western philosopher -- and his dialectical philosophy would have just as great an impact on Western thinking and living as Darwin's theory of evolution. Marx would turn Hegel's dialectical theory upside down and start a Communist revolution. At the same time there are elements of Hegelian 'elitist' thinking that have been implicated in the rise of German fascism. We have already noted the influence that Hegel had on the rise of human existentialism. His work can also be tied to the rise of 'Deconstruction (ism)' in the work of Nietzsche and then Derrida (some would say as a rebellious reaction to Hegel's hugely abstract, idealistic Grand Narrative; others like myself would argue that Deconstruction(ism) was inherently already a part of the Hegelian dialectical Grand Narrative in its 'anti-thesis' (deconstructive) stage of the triadic cycle.) Hegel's system of philosophy allows for similaries and differences in thought process alike and all are, or idealistically can be, integrated into the merging, evolving, dialectical wholistic historical union. If there are two major differences in perspective between classic Hegelian theory and what we are developing here as Gap Multi-Dialectical Theory, it is in: 1. the degree of 'historical determinism' (Hegel) vs. 'individual and group free will' (Gap Dialectical Theory); and 2. the degree of perceived 'automatic historical evolutionary progression' (Hegel) vs. the perceived progressive or regressive evolutionary effect of a particular line of individual and/or group behavior (Gap Multi-Dialectical Theory). In these two respects Gap Multi-Dialectical Philosophy can be viewed as a more Humanistic-Existential, Post-Hegelian version of its classic Hegelian predecessor. What remains consistent between the Classic, original Hegelian dialectical theory and what I am promoting here is the essential triadic (or depending on how you look at it, quadratic) cycle of the process: 1. thesis (Structuralism or Cosntructionism); 2. anti-thesis (Deconstruction(ism)); 3. synthesis (Reconstruction based on creative integration that ideally contains the best pieces of both opposing theories, perspectives, and/or lifestyles dynamically and dialectically pushing against each other, energizing each other ('Yin' and 'Yang', Dionysius and Apollo, Id and Superego, Shadow and Persona, Topdog and Underdog...) into a new evolutionary polarized, stabally or unstabally balanced (depending on the quality of the creative integration) -- dialectical whole. The purpose of Hegel's Hotel: The Gap Multi-Integrative-Dialectic School and Forum of Philosophy-Psychology-Politics... is to re-popularize and re-energize Hegel and to offer a 21st century post-script to Hegel's most famous work: The Phenomenology of Mind (sometimes translated as The Phenomenology of Spirit'). Stated differently, the purpose of Hegel's Hotel is to dialectically bridge gaps between different perspectives, different opinions, different lifestyles, different theories. Here are some of the protagonists and contestants that hopefully -- again, time and energy permitting -- will become involved in this evolutionary dialectical process and its evolving integrative structure: Anaxamander and Hegel, Hegel and Nietzsche, Hegel and Schopenhauer, Hegel and Kierkegaard, Hegel and Marx, Hegel and Derrida, Hegel and Freud, Freud and Adler, Freud and Jung, Adler and Perls, Freud and Perls, Jung and Adler, Pre-Socratic Philosophy and Post-Socratic Philosophy, Greek Philosophy and Scholastic (Religious) Philosophy, Scholastic Philosophy and Enlightenment Philosophy, Enlightenment Philosophy and Romantic Philosophy, Humanism and Existentialism, Constructionism and Deconstructionism, Conservatism and Liberalism, Capitalism and Socialism, Feminism and Masculinism, Orthodox Medicine and Nutritional Medicine, Science and Religion, Philosophy and Art -- and this is just a general overview of what is to come. I will start this process and anyone who wishes to join in -- to either debate my essays and/or in some other way add their own contributions -- is more than welcome to do so. Welcome to Hegel's Hotel: The Gap-MID School and Forum of Philosophy P.S. Appropriately, I like the fact that I have written this essay in the early hours of the morning of the 40th anniversary of The McMicael Canadian Art Collection and offer the essay as my own personal contribution to their anniversary and day of celebration. I hope to add my own multi-dialectical contributions to the philosophy of art sometime within the next year or so, when I get to that section of the forum -- as limited and partly naive as some of my comments may be due to my lack of artistic training and expertise. Still philosophy and art are definitely significantly entwined, and I wish to make my comments in this regard. DB, July 9th, 2006, updated July 23rd, 2006.