Hegel's regent and Dale's Law of Philosopher-Regent Pairs.

April 7, 2011

J. L. Speranza brings up the crucial case of Hegel who was associated with the regent Frederick William III. This case is especially important here because Grice seemed to have a tic when it came to Hegel even though Grice was, unbeknownst to himself, deeply influenced by Hegel in crucial ways which I hope soon be writing on. (I'm not kidding about this last bit.)

The basic law works with Hegel as well since Frederick III, being the regent associated with Hegel, died in 1840 while Hegel died in 1831.

Of course, part of Dale's Law of Philosopher-Regent Pairs has it that "the further from 180 C.E. in either direction, the larger the gap between the death of the members." And, since a 39 year gap between Descartes' death in 1650 and Christina's death in 1689, one would expect by the law, that 1831, being further removed from 180 CE than 1650, the gap between Hegel's death and Frederick III's death should be larger than 39 years.

Obviously the anomaly is due to (1) the fact that Frederick III's reign was interrupted in 1806--as Hegel was completing the "Phenomenology of Spirit"--by the Napoleonic wars, and (2) meteorological conditions. Frederick III's reign continued again in 1813 after Napoleon's fiasco in Russia in 1812. So, I hereby revise the Law as follows:

"Dale's Law of Philosopher-Regent Pairs". It goes like this:

For any pair of a philosopher and a regent he/she is closely associated with, the order in which the members of the pair die is strictly determined: before 180 C.E., the regent died first, then the philosopher; after 180 C.E., the philosopher died first, then the regent; and, ceteris paribus, the further from 180 C.E. in either direction, the larger the gap between the death of the members.

Thus:

In 323 B.C.E., Alexander died. Then, in 322 B.C.E., Aristotle died.

In 44 B.C.E., Julius Caesar died. Then, in 43 B.C.E., Cicero.

In 180 C.E., Aurelius died: both a regent and a philosopher. (This is the crossover point.)

In 525 C.E., Boethius died. Then, in 526 C.E., Theodoric the Great died.

In 804 C.E., Alcuin died. In 814 C.E., Charlemagne died.

In 1650, Descartes died. In 1689, Queen Christina died.

In 1831, Hegel died. In 1840, Frederick William III died (ceteris not being paribus in this case: Frederick's reign was interrupted in October 1806 by the French under Napoleon at the very battle of Jena that Hegel was so impressed with as he was finishing writing the Phenomenology of Spirit; Frederick's reign continued in 1813 after Napoleon was defeated in Russia; this is what caused the anomaly in the law, along with singular meteorological conditions in 1811).

I hope that clarifies everything.