History, Tragedy, and Catharsis

"[I]n Hegel's understanding, the absolute is always emergent from individuality in history. This process of emergence is for Hegel a dialectic, in which (to put it most broadly) opposed positions are reconciled in the moment of 'sublation' (Aufhebung, from the verb aufheben, which can mean "to negate," "to preserve," and "to raise up" - all senses that are encompassed in Hegel's usage). From this higher viewpoint, elements that appeared contradictory or incompatible reveal themselves as parts of the same unified whole. Philosophy's aim for Hegel is the attainment of a viewpoint in which difference and division appear as constructive. The philosopher, like the tragic spectator, cannot reunite what the play of history opposes, but can rationally reconcile himself to the consequences. For Hegel, history is tragedy, and philosophy catharsis." Joshua Billings, Genealogy of the Tragic, 152.