I have attempted to learn about Hegel whenever I was most concerned about the nature of official philosophies, as Hegel was invited to the University of Berlin in 1818 to brilliantly lead German philosophy in a direction that would coddle the idea of reform within the constitutional monarchy of the Prussian state. After Hegel died in 1831, Schelling, who was five years younger, was called to teach philosophy at the University of Berlin, and philosophy as a companion of rising expectations seemed to shift in a direction that could include striking back against Hegel. On a point that I find interesting in this intellectual dynamic, I find, early in Chapter Eight, `Solipsism and Intersubjectivity / The Specter of Nihilism' of HEGEL by Frederick Beiser, "We cannot think away the `I', they argued, without presupposing it in the very attempt. Hegel's dissatisfaction with Schelling's cavalier treatment of the problem appears in his famous damning lines in the preface to the PHENOMENOLOGY: that Schelling had shot absolute knowledge out of a pistol." (p. 176). Was that what Hegel meant? The translation of the famous preface by Walter Kaufmann, HEGEL: TEXTS AND COMMENTARY, identifies a pronoun translated as `he' on page 26 as ambivalently referring to Schelling or anyone trying to appear philosophical in Schelling's manner: "Yet he proclaims this monotony and abstract generality as the absolute; he assures us that any dissatisfaction with this is mere incapacity to master the absolute point of view and abide there." "The German pronoun, er, could refer--and, no doubt, does, strictly speaking--to `monochromatic formalism.' But it is a little difficult to picture this drab formalism as proclaiming things and assuring us, and the German reader who has recognized the portrait of Schelling--or his typical imitator--is bound to think of him, not of it." (Kaufmann, pp. 26, 27).

Hegel was concerned that in a system of science, philosophy could only produce knowledge through a long journey, and would not support what an unscientific consciousness would suppose:

"This becoming, as it will appear in its content and the forms that will show themselves in it, will not be anything like what one would at first associate with an introduction to science for the unscientific consciousness. It will also be quite different from a foundation of science. Above all, it will differ from that enthusiasm which, as shot from a pistol, begins immediately with absolute knowledge, having done with other standpoints simply by declaring that it will not deign to take notice of them." (Kaufmann, p. 42).

There is something extremely Prussian about the idea that a pistol shot is capable of changing everyone's state of consciousness, and that Prussia was clamping down on liberal thought by filling Hegel's chair at the University of Berlin with the philosopher most closely associated with Hegel's use of the idea that absolute knowledge could be shot out of a pistol.

Near the end of HEGEL by Frederick Beiser, Chapter 12, `Aesthetics,' emphasizes "how much he loved music, drama, poetry, painting and sculpture. Whenever he arrived in a new city during his travels, he would take every opportunity to visit museums, operas, concerts, and theaters. He adored some singers and actresses, whom he went to great pains to meet." (p. 283). Heidegger began his lecture series on Nietzsche given from 1936 to 1940 with consideration of "The Will To Power as Art." Modern society has become too attuned to the economics of activities, so the ability to produce big bucks at the box office is likely to be associated with brilliant commercial moves instead of the desires of people taking liberal arts courses for the intellectually astute. Hegel announced the end of art in 1828, because art no longer seemed associated with his society's highest values. In 2005, the almighty dollar seems to be much closer to proclaiming that art is great than "that the modern artist is so alienated from society, culture and state that he has lost irredeemably his role as spokesman for its fundamental beliefs and values." (p. 300). Consider owning all your favorite movies as an economic opportunity likely to produce more pleasure than mastering the intricacies of philosophy. The alienated artists seem to be saying a lot more than the people with pistols will ever admit. According to Bob Dylan, Abe Lincoln told us, "All of the people can't be alright all of the time." People are buying whatever they would like to listen to.