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Widespread Views in Hegel’s Time

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Hegel in the Arab World

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Abstract

This chapter aims to point out and briefly discuss (also by referring to the current debate) some key-concepts of the Western views of the East and of Islam, which were widespread in Hegel’s period, such as “exoticism;” the “sensuality” of paradise; the condition of Muslim women; fanaticism and tolerance; and the idea of the “Oriental despotism.” In the eighteenth century, especially with the Enlightenment, a new view of Islam began to develop, which distanced itself from medieval prejudice; at the same time, the colonial enterprise in the Muslim world was about to start.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    “Orientalism” means a vision of the Orient characterized by eurocentrism and tendency to generalization and essentialism, which arose and established itself with colonialism (and later imperialism) and is functional to it. Said’s theory had much success as well as many critics, and is still being debated.

  2. 2.

    For some additional considerations on the views of the East and Islam in modern Europe, see also, among others: Osterhammel (1998), Djaït (1978), Hentsch (1988), Hazard (2013), Hourani (1991), Stroumsa (2010), in particular pp. 124–144.

  3. 3.

    This is probably the case also of Voltaire’s Fanaticism ([1741] 2013).

  4. 4.

    These remarks are taken from a revised text (Voltaire made revisions in 1761, 1769, 1775, and immediately before his death), which is included in the posthumous “Kehl” edition (1785). On Voltaire’s view of Islam see Badir (1974).

  5. 5.

    A useful tool for deepening this aspect is the list of books he possessed at the time of his death (see Verzeichniß 1832).

  6. 6.

    Hegel refers to it in the Lectures on the Philosophy of History ([1840] 2001, p. 200), as an epic having as its subject “the old heroic traditions of Iran,” and that, however, “it has not the value of a historical authority, since its contents are poetical and its author a Mahometan.”

  7. 7.

    For more information about Oriental studies and translations, and the approach to Islam and Islamic culture, in particular in Germany, see: Mangold (2004), Remy (1901), Fück (1955), Stemmrich-Kohler (1983), Almond (2010), Mommsen (1988).

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  1. Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Lorella Ventura

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Ventura, L. (2018). Widespread Views in Hegel’s Time. In: Hegel in the Arab World. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78066-5_2

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