The Obligation of Eternal Destiny

Paper Summary:

This paper reviews, discusses and compares the philosophical thoughts of Simone Weil and Georg Hegel pertaining to collective conscience or the absolute spirit. The paper defines this to be where nothing need be questioned as it is the absolute truth, that we as individuals seek to determine our destiny.

From the Paper:

"Yet, the problem of this philosophical line, whether you believe as Weil that all men have always and will always have the eternal destiny to make sure that no one ever leaves their presence hungry or that of Hegel where seeking the eternal destiny is the work of t he collective culminating into the possibility of the individual to attain it through Christianity and philosophy, is that the collective (e.g. corporation, state) needs a eternal destiny and a collective conscience in order not to destroy the world. Though Weil may have simply been speaking out against socialism, (Bennett 42) Hegel also clearly states that the individuals are the seat of the absolute and individuals alone must find their connection to the absolute spirit and the collective conscience, that it will not be given them without work, without seeking and most importantly without Art, History and Philosophy. The charge against collective dominance, or the corporation's ability to circumvent the obligations of the individual is almost universal in philosophy, even when that is the goal, as in communism. Some would say that is the failing of communism but others would also argue that it will be the failure of the state and the corporation as well because both have the intention of circumventing the individual's responsibility to the collective, a broader collective than that of the corporation."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bennett, John C. Christianity and Communism. New York: Association Press, 1948.
• Gupta, Dipak K. Path to Collective Madness: A Study in Social Order and Political Pathology. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2001.
• Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. Lectures on the History of Philosophy: Greek Philosophy to Plato. Trans. E. S. Haldane. Vol. 1. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1995.
• Singer, Peter. Hegel: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press,2001.
• Weil, Simone. The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties towards Mankind.London: Routledge, 2002.

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