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St. Louis Hegelians

anecdote · history · retold in 3 talks

Žižek recounts the story of German high school teachers in St. Louis who founded the first Hegelian school in America, believing the 'Spirit' had moved from Europe to St. Louis. He uses this to mock the idea of a fixed geographical center of philosophy, noting how the 'Spirit' then moved to Chicago, then the West Coast, and now allegedly China.

2023: 2 talks 2024: 1 talk
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026

As told 3

“Some German high school teachers who around established the first Hegelian school there... Hegel came to his conclusion too quickly.”
“some German high school teachers who around established the first Hegelian school there it was pretty influential even the great pragmatist Charles Sanders Peirce originated from this Hegelian sources”
“since Hegel came a couple of decades earlier he thought England, France, Germany, that's it, the top. But then the spirit moved further west to United States.”

What it carries

one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)

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Every retelling 3

Žižek recounts the story of German high school teachers in St. Louis who founded the first Hegelian school in America, believing the 'Spirit' had moved from Europe to St. Louis. He uses this to mock the idea of a fixed geographical center of philosophy, noting how the 'Spirit' then moved to Chicago, then the West Coast, and now allegedly China., illustrating Hegel-dialectics
German high-school teachers in St. Louis around the 1870s thought the world spirit had moved from Europe to America and then to St. Louis; their followers pushed to East Coast, West Coast, and now some Chinese thinkers claim the spirit ends in China. Žižek uses this as a comic illustration of the 'not-yet Hegelian' syndrome., illustrating not-yet Hegelians,hegel-dialectics
A chain of Hegelian claims that the world-spirit keeps moving west, from England/France/Germany to the US (New York, then St. Louis, then California), then to post-historical Japan (Kojève), and finally back to China, which Žižek cites only to reject as the false logic of teleology., illustrating teleology,the false logic of historical progress he rejects