Lectures on the History of Philosophy, Volume 1G. W. F. Hegel (17701831), the influential German philosopher, believed that human history was advancing spiritually and morally according to Gods purpose. At the beginning of this masterwork, Hegel writes: What the history of Philosophy shows us is a succession of noble minds, a gallery of heroes of thought, who, by the power of Reason, have penetrated into the being of things, of nature and of spirit, into the Being of God, and have won for us by