Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Hegel on History by Mccarney Joseph;

Author:Mccarney, Joseph;
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

Chapter 8

The cunning of reason

This discussion of historical means has still some way to go in answering the question with which it began, that of how to conceive of their service of the Idea. Indeed, that question now seems to arise even more pressingly. For one might well wonder how precisely it could be that world historical individuals, with their limited understanding and limitless passions, manage to advance the cause of the universal. The problem is one that arises in the case of their followers too and, in truth, of all historical actors. Hence, Hegel poses the issues in suitably general terms. Having given his standard list of the items of which we have taken ‘passion’ to be representative, he comments as follows: ‘This immeasurable mass of wills, interests and activities constitutes the instruments and means of the world spirit for achieving its end, to raise it to consciousness and to realise it’. He goes on to narrow the focus a little by declaring that those very life-forms of individuals and peoples are, in seeking and satisfying their own ends, ‘at the same time the means and instruments of something higher and broader of which they know nothing, and which they unconsciously fulfil’ (H, 87:74; M, 40:25, 31, 28). There is plainly a theoretical space here between finite instruments and infinite ends which has to be filled. Hegel's primary recourse is to the device, prefigured in these remarks, of the ‘cunning of reason’ (List der Vernunft).

It is a device that gives rise to an even sharper sense of incongruity between Hegel and his interpreters than is the case with the world historical individuals. A mountain of commentary rests on relatively brief portions of text, themselves given over in large part to a vigorous rhetoric. Once again, however, it should prove possible to identify a literal and defensible thesis. It will turn out to be both firmly grounded in Hegel's thought and of value in addressing questions that also have a life outside it, questions that arise for any theoretical engagement with history. Indeed, the very rootedness of the cunning of reason may itself go some way to account for Hegel's lack of explicitness. The place for it is so decisively preordained, and its function so firmly delimited, by systemic considerations that the need for it to be worked out discursively may not have seemed compelling to him. It is not a device with a rich internal structure demanding elaboration but one in the service of larger factors by which its use is determined and, one might say, over-determined. Thus, it might be assumed that anyone with a sense of the architecture of Hegel's thought could readily acquire a grasp of its role.

These remarks may be filled out in a preliminary way so as to motivate the introduction of the cunning of reason theme. In very general terms the need for it is obvious enough. That need must arise in some form for any speculative philosopher of history, at least for any who views the overall story as in some sense, however vague or attenuated, one of progress.

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