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Hello, Hagel 1770 to 1831 is on the most influential of modern philosophers.

And one of his essential questions was whether we enjoy more freedom now than those who came

before us.

To explore that, he looked into the past to see when freedom was moving from one to the

few to everyone, defining history itself as the progress in the consciousness of freedom.

We'd need to discuss Hagel's philosophy of history, our Sally Sedgwick, Professor and

Chair of Philosophy at Boston University, Robert Stern, Professor at Philosophy at the University

of Sheffield and Stephen Hulgate, Professor at Philosophy at the University of Worry.

Stephen Hulgate, his own history had some bearing on his ideas, so can you tell us about

Hagel's early life?

Hagel was born in 1770, the same year as Beethoven and Wordsworth.

So he was a young man going on 19 when the French Revolution broke out in 1789 and he

was initially filled with enthusiasm for it and its ideals of freedom and equality, but

then clearly, deeply disappointed, as I guess, a lot of people were at the time when the

terror arose, but that prompted Hagel to formulate some thoughts about the intimate connection

between certain conceptions of freedom and death.

There is a way of conceiving freedom, Hagel thinks, that leads not to freedom, but death

...