We discussed Hegel and his philosophy of history - and after enjoyed an excellent festive gathering!

Hegel’s philosophy of history is speculative: he thinks that history has a purpose and evolves towards a goal.  This was the starting point of he lecture by Professor Anton van Niekerkwe on the Speculative Philosophy of History at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pqmzIpWKhQ&t=22s  He described Hegel’s method of Thesis - Antithesis -Synthesis, and how he showed the progress of history through China, India Persia, then Greece Rome and Prussia, where he declared history ended!  For Hegel history is about the state, not the individual: freedom for the individual comes down to freedom to obey the law.  We noted that For Hegel war was a part of history.  He would not have accepted a League of Nations or any global institution, which Russell challenged as illogical.  There were many responses to Hegel, mostly refuting his ideas.  Marx turned his Idealism - the Mind (of the nation() determines how things are - upside down: economics determines how we think.  Putin seems to have gone back to Hegel - https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdjgzrkxp97o  We looked at Popper who challenged the view.  Such a state leads to winners and losers and a government that knows best.  Popper pointed out politics and human interactions are not analysable as are the laws of physics, and knowledge and circumstances will change over time in a way that cannot be known.  His defence of liberal democracy is that we can get rid of a bad leader.