Ep. 389: Hegel on Wealth and Power (Part Two)

About this episode

The episode concludes the discussion on Hegel's views on culture, wealth, and the psychological dynamics between nobles and the king.

Concluding on "Culture and its Realm of Actuality," in Hegel's Phenomenology via sections 519-526. We get into some of the ironic psychology here: In giving loyalty to the king, the nobles actually boost themselves qua givers. They should be grateful to the king to get wealth back from him, but being dependent on the king makes them resentful. The result is duplicitous people resenting those they claim to esteem, and moral language that is thus used inconsistently (the king is "good" when praised by "bad" when resented), which encourages jaded moral nihilism. Sponsor: Get a $1/month e-commerce trial at shopify.com/pel. Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion.

People in this episode

Host: Mark Linsenmayer

Topics covered

• Hegel
• wealth
• power
• culture
• psychology
• moral nihilism

Keywords

• Hegel
• wealth
• power
• culture
• moral language
• nihilism
• nobles
• king

Sponsors

Shopify

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Hegel's Phenomenology

More episodes of The Partially Examined Life

• PEL Presents PMP#223: What Is Star Wars Now? · June 11, 2026 · 55 min
• Ep. 393: Kant vs. Hegel (Part One) · June 8, 2026 · 51 min
• PEL Presents PvI#118: Aphoristically w/ Andrea Roccella · June 7, 2026 · 50 min
• PEL Presents Closereads: Horkheimer and Adorno on The Odyssey (Part One) · June 5, 2026 · 1h 0m
• Ep. 392: Early Hegel Elevates Reason (Part Two) · June 1, 2026 · 50 min
• NEM#253: Synth-Scaper Richard Barbieri (Japan, Porcupine Tree) · May 31, 2026 · 1h 14m