Abstract

Hegel’s history of philosophy has irreplaceable place within the whole of his philosophizing and this fact grounds its philosophical importance. It has become the organ of the self-knowing mind in time as an integral component of philosophy of objective mind. Patočka was very precise with defining four main dimensions of Hegel’s philosophy of the history of philosophy: 1. The development of philosophy is organic. Different philosophies are different stages of the same organism development. 2. The role of individuality is subordinate; it does not belong to philosophical contents. 3. Time is but a mere external milieu, a mirror of inner development in the organism of mind. Philosophy and other aspects of mind in different periods are certain manifestations of the very same stage in the development of spiritual substance. Each historical period can be expressed rationally. Time thus doesn´t have positive, content meaning. 4. Advance of philosophical systems corresponds with the logical development of thought. The crucial core of Hegel’s philosophy of the history of philosophy as Patočka identified it couldn´t be even put forward in a better way. According to Patočka, Hegel is right that history of philosophy lives a life of systematic philosophy; it reflects our systematic nature, our tendency to system. History of philosophy and philosophy itself for Patočka, as well as for Hegel, create unity – a kind of organic totality.