Hegel is usually thought of as defending an obscure metaphysics that claims reality is the manifestation of a collective mind, Geist. But, as Terry Pinkard argues, Hegel has a lot in common with the more "down-to-earth" movement of pragmatism. Geist doesn't need to be interpreted as one gigantic metaphysical entity, but as the collection of self-conscious individuals whose practices reveal that they are part of something greater. Following this approach, Hegel's idealist view of history as the development of our collective self-consciousness begins to make a lot more sense.

This is the second installment in our series on idealism, Mind & Reality, in partnership with the Essentia Foundation. Read the previous installment of the series, Parmenides: the first Idealist.

Hegelianism is often thought of as the super-theoretical German mishmash of absolutist philosophy that is great in theory but ridiculous in practice, whereas pragmatism is often thought of a kind of philosophical version of “who cares whether it’s true, the question is whether it works,” which is enough for some to reject it as crass and unphilosophical. Or, to reverse the joke ascribed to Sidney Morgenbesser: The problem with pragmatism is that it is great in practice but not in theory.