The Role of the Individual in History according to Historiosophical Concepts of G.W.F. Hegel and N.A. Berdyaev

Abstract

The present article discusses the role of the individual in history according to the works of G.F.W. Hegel and N. A. Berdyaev, who devoted a considerable part of their efforts to the development of the concept of the philosophy of history. A direct comparison of these two seems too laborious of a task and can hardly be accomplished in this brief format, but the remarkable details of this comparison reveal themselves most vividly in the question of the relation of the individual to history in the concepts of both philosophers. In the course of the research, it was discovered that while for Hegel an individual is a part of the historical process and is subordinated to it, for Berdyaev, on the contrary, an individual includes history as a moment of its formation. Berdyaev believes that an individual is fundamentally primary in relation to history.