Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy: Volume 3 (of 3)
Georg Hegel · en
The philosophy of Locke is certainly very comprehensible, but for that
very reason it is likewise a popular philosophy to which the whole of
the English philosophy as it exists at this day is allied; it is the
thinking method of regarding things which is called philosophy carried
to its perfection, the form which was introduced into the science which
then took its rise in Europe. This is an important moment in culture;
the sciences in general and specially the empiric sciences have to
ascribe their origin to this movement. To the English, Philosophy has
ever signified the deduction of experiences from observations; this
has in a one-sided way been applied to physical and economic subjects.
General principles of political economy such as free-trade in the present
day, and all matters which rest on thinking experience, the knowledge of
whatever reveals itself in this sphere as necessary and useful, signifies
philosophy to the English (Vol. I. pp. 57, 58). The scholastic method
of starting from principles and definitions has been rejected. The
universal, laws, forces, universal matter, etc., have in natural science
been derived from perceptions; thus to the English, Newton is held to
be the philosopher κατ’ ἐξοχήν. The other side is that in practical
philosophy regarding society or the state, thought applies itself to
concrete objects such as the will of the prince, subjects and their ends
and personal welfare. Inasmuch as we have an object such as that before
us, the indwelling and essential universal is made evident; it must,
however, be made clear which conception is the one to which the others
must yield. It is in this way that rational politics took their rise in
England, because the institutions and government peculiar to the English
led them specially and in the first place to reflection upon their inward
political and economic relationships. Hobbes must be mentioned as an
exemplification of this fact. This manner of reasoning starts from the
present mind, from what is our own, whether it be within or without us,
since the feelings which we have, the experiences which fall directly
within us, are the principles. This philosophy of reasoning thought
is that which has now become universal, and through which the whole
revolution in the position taken up by mind has come to pass.
2. HUGO GROTIUS.