German philosopher Georg Hegel offers a critique of Stoicism that follows similar lines, albeit covering different trajectories. In his "Phenomenology of Spirit", Hegel attacks the preoccupation with the inner self as a severing, fatalistic barrier to consciousness. A philosophy that reduces all states of harm or injustice to emotional states "could only appear on the scene in a time of universal fear and bondage." The Stoic refusal to meet the world is anathema to Life, a central value in Hegel's philosophical work: "whether on the throne or in chains, in the utter dependence of its individual existence, it aims to be free, and to maintain that lifeless indifference which steadfastly withdraws from the bustle of existence." M. L. Clarke concurs in his historical work on philosophical ideas, "The Roman Mind", where he states "olitical liberty could hardly flourish after so many years of despotism and the indifference to public affairs which it bred. And philosophy fostered the same spirit."