For the philosopher of history, . Hegel, the fundamental challenge for any student of societal evolution is to apprehend in thought the spirit of the age (or the zeitgeist)—., to understand the motive force of change while it is still at work (Lauer, 1974). Catching the zeitgeist ‘in the act,’ so to speak, is a matter of practical importance; for gaining such an understanding would seem to be a necessary, if not sufficient, condition for successfully shaping ‘for the better’ any future state of affairs. Hegel does not give us much cause for optimism here. He famously observed that the owl of Minerva, Roman goddess of wisdom,.
