WHY, ACCORDING TO HAGEL, DOES THE ATTEMPT TO REALISE ABSOLUTE FREEDOM Essay

WHY, ACCORDING TO HAGEL, DOES THE ATTEMPT TO REALISE ABSOLUTE FREEDOM BRING ABOUT ITS OPPOSITE(absolute tyranny) TO what extent do you agree with Hagel - Essay Example One reason for Hegel’s concern with dialectics was because two of the philosophers he respected immensely, Hobbes and Rousseau, had contradictory ideas concerning the nature of freedom. To Hegel, the idea of absolute freedom could only lead to tyranny, and he was in agreement with Hobbes and his work from The Leviathan, which stated that people needed society because otherwise they would more or less destroy each other. This is part of the â€Å"utter indifference toward death that Hegel saw as the hallmark of the terror† (Schmidt 4). Of course, with any ideas that Hegel worked with, the concept of freedom was multifaceted and complex, and it is necessary to discuss the many different aspects of freedom in order to fully comprehend the ways in which absolute freedom would lead to tyranny. This tyranny, witnessed as a result of the French Revolution, was the part of Rousseau’s philosophy that he attempted to contradict: â€Å"Hegel believed that Rousseau’s political philosophy was fundamentally misconceived because it sought to transpose to the state much the same ideal of individual self-sufficiency as was ascribed to uncultured peoples and to an education concerned in accordance with nature† (Wokler 35). Once all of Hegel’s conceptions of freedom have been discussed, we can see how Hegel’s conception of absolute freedom truly would lead to its opposite, tyranny, because, as Hegel says, â€Å"The sole and only work and deed accomplished by universal freedom is therefore deathâ €  (Absolute). The first conception of freedom that needs to be discussed is natural freedom. This is what we find people in their natural state; to be able to choose to determine one’s own self: â€Å"When a man is so self-determined but the only content of his will the only source of his determinations - are his impulses, appetites and desires, he has what Hegel calls an immediate or natural