In this paper, I explore the position and significance of Hegelianism as revised by Merleau-Ponty. Merleau-Ponty opposed two types of Hegelian interpretation: the position that finds only objective necessity in history and the position that persistently emphasizes the contingency and relativity in history. Kojève also disagreed with these two interpretations and proposed an alternative, which, however, was presumably most diffi- cult for Merleau-Ponty to accept. In fact, Merleau-Ponty opposed Kojève’s interpretation of Hegel, which projected his desired government onto the future based on a progressive view of history. In order to clarify his position, this paper compares it with the view of Walter Benjamin, who also objected to Kojève’s interpretation of Hegel. In opposition to Kojève’s interpretation, Benjamin demands a method of historical philosophy that recalls the oppressed in the motif of Klee’s angel who turned his back on the future. In Benja- min’s depiction, however, human beings appear to be almost incompetent in face of the existing meaning and direction of history. In contrast, Merleau-Ponty, although he also uses the motif of the crayfish that turned its back on the future, refers to the history of academic progress and the way of being of scholars who engage with academic progress. In this way, he gives a more positive evaluation of the human being, who continues to look at the past while simultaneously developing patterns of recognition of the world.