Advanced spirit reduces past achievements to children’s exercises.

Evidence

In a spirit that is more advanced than another, the lower concrete existence has been reduced to an inconspicuous moment (zu einem unscheinbaren Momente herabgesunken): what used to be the important thing is now but a trace (nur noch ein Spur); its pattern is shrouded to become a mere shadowy outline (eine einfache Schattierung geworden)… . The single individual must also pass through the formative stages of universal spirit so far as their content is concerned, but as shapes which spirit has already left behind (schon abgelegte Gestalten), as stages on a way that has been made level with toil (als Stufen eines Wegs, der ausgearbeitet und geebnet ist). Thus, as far as knowledge is concerned, we find that what in former ages engaged the attention of men of mature mind, has been reduced (herabgesunken) to the level of facts, exercises, and even games for children. — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 1036

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• XREF: Connects to the later pedagogic reading (childhood recapitulating spirit’s history) and to claims that thought itself is ‘an epitomist’ abstracting events.

Related

• Modern individuals receive abstract universality ready-made rather than forging it from concrete life (similarity 0.80)
• Each stage of spirit reduces to one dominant determination with others blurred (similarity 0.79)