Hegel, Schooenhauer

Philosophy: Contrast and ComparisonIn this essay, we shall compare and the Hegelian concept of Geist, against Schopenhauer’s “Will” and Nietzsche’s “Will to power”. Hence, by assessing these concepts, we shall gain a broader perspective of German romanticism and the philosophical ideas that sustain it.
Therefore, to correctly understand Hegel’s thought, it is fundamental understanding the concept of Geist
“Spirit is the ethical life of a nation in so far as it is the actual truth – the individual that is the world. It must advance to the consciousness of what it is immediate, must leave behind it the beauty of ethical life, and by passing through a series of shapes attain to a knowledge of itself. These shapes, however, are distinguished from the previous ones by the fact that they are real Spirits, actualities in the strict meaning of the word, and instead of being shapes merely of consciousness, are shapes of a world” (Hegel, PS, 265)
Consequently, Hegel’s spirit is not a quality of the body, but one of the mind. However, unlike Kant, who tries to link conscience to morals, Hegel seeks to find the self in the consciousness. Thus, Hegel’s approach is much more logical and tries to connect the mind with the consciousness to explore not how we know, but how our mental states link to the world. To do that, Hegel establishes that the passing through the different states of the consciousness is not a real process. Instead, it is a dialectical pr…