The Cave and the Light: Plato Versus Aristotle, and the Struggle for the Soul of Western Civilization

by Arthur Herman

Plato had made constant revolutions the dynamic of man’s life in society, and so does Hegel. Synthesis appears only after a crisis—another word Hegel made famous—and history on Hegel’s terms is a series of crises. Indeed, “periods of happiness in history” are, in Hegel’s words, “empty pages.” They contribute nothing to mankind’s advance. During peacetime, he wrote, “civil life becomes more extended, every sphere is hedged in … and at last all men stagnate.” Men are better off, Hegel decided, when they are forced to face danger and uncertainty, forced to rise to the occasion. “Let insecurity finally come in the form of Hussars with glistening sabers, and show its earnest activity!”