"Hegel is commonly viewed as having attempted something truly magnificent and as having failed to preposterously to achieve it. But when we view his systematic thought as philosophical narrative, it turns out to be quite achievable (though still not modest in its pretensions)."
There is, however, as much materialism in Hegel as in Marx. Since matter is for [Hegel] certainly a stage in the begriff. (Just as there is also a strong strain of teleological idealism in the supposedly scientific materialism of Marx.)
However, the transition from Kant's talk of "consciousness in general" and "synthetic unity of consciousness" to Hegel's conception of a literally general consciousness has been understandably challenged as one of the most confused and notoriously invalid moves in the history of philosophy.- Robert C. Solomon, “Hegel’s Concept of Geist,” in The Review of Metaphysics, vol. 23, no. 4 (1970).
"Consider a 6'6" basketball player. He was so tall he could jump and get a quarter off the top of the backboard. But what is that without the institution of basketball -getting more bananas?"
