Is this MLK quote

[ataraxia]

I am trying to understand Hegel. So for all of you Hegel experts out there, I wanted to post this thread as a question and a sounding board to see if I am understanding this properly:

MLK once said about the progress of race relations in the US : "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

I looked at that and realized this is based on this assumption that human history of morality necessarily headed towards a particular teleological goal- in this case freedom, or justice. This is sort of reminiscent of a Hegelian conception of the direction of the broad sweep of human history- that it is necessarily bending towards something or other, a sort of teleological end-goal that it is destined towards what Hegel called "The Absolute".

Now admittedly, MLK, as a Christian reverend, probably was thinking more in religious millenarian terms rather than explicitly Hegelian terms when he said this- perhaps taking to heart the Lord's Prayer: "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven"- a sort of faith that over time, peace, freedom, justice, and other such ideals can be realized in our fallen Earthly world as it is in heaven. A secular version of that, of course, is Marx's reading of Hegel, with his idea of the dialectical materialism leading to a utopia where all those ideals can be realized.

Coincidentally, I saw this video on Youtube as well, talking about the history of manners, and how over the long arc of human history, manners have evolved towards more consideration and care of others, through what the video calls "a long and always unsteady civilizing process". Feel free to comment on this as well:



But all of these sound very Hegelian. Am I correct in understanding all of these as drawing on Hegelian philosophy?

 

[ecofarm]

Social progress always accompanies tech progress in the long run.

 

[ashurbanipal]

I am trying to understand Hegel. So for all of you Hegel experts out there, I wanted to post this thread as a question and a sounding board to see if I am understanding this properly:

MLK once said about the progress of race relations in the US : "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

I looked at that and realized this is based on this assumption that human history of morality necessarily headed towards a particular teleological goal- in this case freedom, or justice. This is sort of reminiscent of a Hegelian conception of the direction of the broad sweep of human history- that it is necessarily bending towards something or other, a sort of teleological end-goal that it is destined towards what Hegel called "The Absolute".

Now admittedly, MLK, as a Christian reverend, probably was thinking more in religious millenarian terms rather than explicitly Hegelian terms when he said this- perhaps taking to heart the Lord's Prayer: "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven"- a sort of faith that over time, peace, freedom, justice, and other such ideals can be realized in our fallen Earthly world as it is in heaven. A secular version of that, of course, is Marx's reading of Hegel, with his idea of the dialectical materialism leading to a utopia where all those ideals can be realized.

Coincidentally, I saw this video on Youtube as well, talking about the history of manners, and how over the long arc of human history, manners have evolved towards more consideration and care of others, through what the video calls "a long and always unsteady civilizing process". Feel free to comment on this as well:



But all of these sound very Hegelian. Am I correct in understanding all of these as drawing on Hegelian philosophy?

I think you've got that roughly correct. I'm not a Hegel scholar or specialist, but I do have a PhD in philosophy (and am working on one in Theology) and that seems in line with my understanding of Hegel. One further point to make here is that you're probably onto more than you realize by linking the explicitly theological with Hegel's teleology. Hegel's lectures on the philosophy of religion reveal that he likely got his notion of the direction of history and the Absolute from christian eschatologies and teleologies popular in his day (some of which remain popular).

So yeah, I think you've got at least a rough idea what's up here.

 

[j brown's body]

I don't know if this is helpful, but this is the guy who apparently originated the term. Another reverend.

Theodore Parker - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

.

 

[Masterhawk]

I am trying to understand Hegel. So for all of you Hegel experts out there, I wanted to post this thread as a question and a sounding board to see if I am understanding this properly:

MLK once said about the progress of race relations in the US : "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

I looked at that and realized this is based on this assumption that human history of morality necessarily headed towards a particular teleological goal- in this case freedom, or justice. This is sort of reminiscent of a Hegelian conception of the direction of the broad sweep of human history- that it is necessarily bending towards something or other, a sort of teleological end-goal that it is destined towards what Hegel called "The Absolute".

Now admittedly, MLK, as a Christian reverend, probably was thinking more in religious millenarian terms rather than explicitly Hegelian terms when he said this- perhaps taking to heart the Lord's Prayer: "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven"- a sort of faith that over time, peace, freedom, justice, and other such ideals can be realized in our fallen Earthly world as it is in heaven. A secular version of that, of course, is Marx's reading of Hegel, with his idea of the dialectical materialism leading to a utopia where all those ideals can be realized.

Coincidentally, I saw this video on Youtube as well, talking about the history of manners, and how over the long arc of human history, manners have evolved towards more consideration and care of others, through what the video calls "a long and always unsteady civilizing process". Feel free to comment on this as well:



But all of these sound very Hegelian. Am I correct in understanding all of these as drawing on Hegelian philosophy?

People tend to say inspiring things in speeches and MLK was no exception. However, he challenged this assumption in his letter from Birmingham jail in a section in which he criticized white moderates who said that civil disobedience and protest was unnecessary because equality would eventually come.

 

[lemmiwinx]

MLK was a southern Baptist preacher. He stole talking points in his sermons from every speech maker from Samuel Clemens to JFK.