Conspectus of Hegel’s Book Lectures On the History of Philosophy :: Volume XV. Volume III Of The History Of Philosophy (The End Of Greek Philosophy, Medieval and Modern Philosophy up to Schelling, pp. 1-692)

Volume XV. Volume III Of The History Of Philosophy
(The End Of Greek Philosophy, Medieval
and Modern Philosophy up to Schelling, pp. 1-692)

Written 1915 · pages 301–302 · First published 1930 in Lenin Miscellany XII · Translated by Clemence Dutt

Note that this document has undergone special formating to ensure that Lenin’s sidenotes fit on the page, marking as best as possible where they were located in the original manuscript.

 

VOLUME XV. VOLUME III OF THE HISTORY
OF PHILOSOPHY
(THE END OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY, MEDIEVAL AND
MODERN PHILOSOPHY UP TO SCHELLING, pp. 1--692)

BERLIN, 1836

THE NEO-PLATONISTS[1]

...“The return to God....” (5),[2] “self-
consciousness is absolute Essence”..., “the
world-spirit”... (7), “Christian religion”....
(8)And a mass of thin porridge
ladled out about God.... (8-18)

 

But this philosophical idealism, open-
ly, “seriously” leading to God, is more
honest than modern agnosticism with
its hypocrisy and cowardice.

 

A. Philo—(about the time of the birth

of Christ), a Jewish savant, a mystic,
“finds Plato present in Moses” (19),
etc. The main point is “the knowl-
edge of God” (21), etc. God is λόγοζ,[3]
“the epitome of all Ideas,” “pure Be-
ing” (22) (“according to Plato”)....
(22) Ideas are “angels” (messengers
of God).... (24) The sensuous world,
however, “as with Plato” = ούχ όν[4] =
= not-Being. (25)

 
 
 
Ideas
(of Plato)
and the
good Lord

B. Cabbala,[5] the Gnostics[6]——————

idem...

C. Alexandrian philosophy[7]—(= eclectic

ism) (=Platonists, Pythagoreans, Ari-
stotelians). (33, 35)

Eclectics are either uncultured men, or
cunning (die klugen Leute[8] —they take the
good from every system, but...

—they collect every good but do not have
“consistency of thought, and consequently
thought itself.” (33)

on the
eclectics...

They developed Plato....

“The Platonic universal, which is in
thought, accordingly receives the significa-
tion of being as such absolute essence”(33)....

Plato’s ideas
and the good
Lord
 

 

HEGEL ON PLATO’S DIALOGUES[9]

(Timaeus)    p.
(230)[10]
(238)
(240)
(248) 		 
Sophistes
Philebus
Parmenides

 

 

Notes

[1] Neo-Platonists—followers of the mystical philosophical doctrine, the basis of which was Plato’s idealism. Neo-Platonism (Plotinus was the head of this school) developed during the period from the 3rd to the 5th centuries and was a combination of the Stoic, Epicurean and Sceptical doctrines with the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. The influence of neo-Platonism was strong in the Middle Ages; it was expressed in the doctrines of the leading medieval theologians and is also to be seen in certain trends of modern bourgeois philosophy.

[2] Hegel, Werke, Rd. XV, Berlin, 1836.—Ed.

[3] logos—Ed.

[4] non-existent—Ed.

[5] Cabbala—a medieval mystical religious “doctrine” prevalent among the most fanatical followers of Judaism, as well as among adherents of Christianity and Islam. The basic thought of this doctrine is the symbolic interpretation of the Holy Scripture, whose every word and number acquires special mystical importance in the eyes of the Cabbalists.

[6] Gnostics—followers of mystical, religious-philosophical doctrines during the early centuries of our era. They tried to unite Christian theology and various theses of Platonic, Pythagorean and Stoic philosophy.

[7] Alexandrian philosophy—several philosophical schools and trends that arose during the early centuries of our era in Alexandria, Egypt. Their distinguishing feature was their attempt to unite Plato’s and Aristotle’s philosophy and the mystical Eastern cults.

[8] clever people—Ed.

[9] This entry was made by Lenin in German on the back cover of the notebook containing the conspectus of Hegel’s book Lectures on the Philosophy of History.—Ed.

[10] Hegel, Werke, Bd. XIV, Berlin, 1833.—Ed.