Taking Adornos critique of Hegels Philosophy of History as point of
departure, this paper: (1) sketches the general outlines of the modern
Philosophy of History in order to (2) spotlight their commonalities and
differences. Hegels Philosophy of History (3) can be described by considering
pain and the negative. It highlights these topics in a way that had never been
done before, so it became a turning point, as revealed by the fact that he
treated the Philosophy of History as theodicy. Despite his initial intention of
carrying out theodicy, which Leibniz depicted in a metaphysical and abstract
way, in the specific field of history, this intention was realised not in the
Philosophy of History (it only conceptualises theodicy as viewed as a
framework of meaning for action) but instead in the absolute spirit, in his
reference to Christianity and specifically to incarnation and Christ's death
