Hegel's Thoughts on Personality

Hegel claims that "the actions of human beings stem from their needs, their passions, their interests, the satisfaction of selfish desire." Hegel also believes that the historical process interrelates two great elements, "the first is the Idea, the other is human passion; the first in the warp, the other the woof in the great tapestry of world history that is spread out before us." "But world history is not a place for happiness. Periods of happiness are empty pages in history, for they are the periods of harmony, times when the antithesis is missing."

Hegel contends that, what makes leaders great is a fortunate coincidence between their selfish desires and the requirements of universal Reason, "The historical men - the world-historical individuals - are those whose aims embody a universal concept." He uses a example of Julius Caesar. When Caesar led his troops across the Rubicon River into Rome, in 49 BC, against the orders of the Roman Senate, he was driven by personal ambition. However, this act changed history since, "Caesar became the sole ruler of the state. The accomplishment of his originally negative aim - i.e., the autocratic control of Rome - was at the same time an essential determination in the history of Rome and of the world."

The personal desires of men are at little significance in relation to the purposes of the Absolute: "Compared to the universal, the particular is for the most part too slight in importance: individuals are surrendered and sacrificed. The Idea pays the ransom of existence and transience - not out of its own pocket, but with the passions of individuals." Self-consciousness and mental activity are fundamental to Hegel's conception of personality. "The substance of mind is freedom, i.e. the absence of dependence on an Other, the relating of self to self." The Mind develops "in three stages." The first being "Mind Subjective," then as "Mind Objective," and finally as, "Mind Absolute." The Subjective mind is represented as soul, consciousness, and independent subject. The Objective mind involves law, morality, and social relationships. Finally, the Absolute mind is art, religion, and philosophy and grasps the Absolute Spirit as "the one and universal substance." Basically Hegel believes that the mind is personality in which knowledge is possible.