HEGEL, GEORG WILHELM FRIEDRICH

born Aug. 27, 1770, Stuttgart, Wrttemberg died Nov. 14, 1831, Berlin German idealist philosopher who developed a dialectical scheme that emphasized the progress of history and ideas from thesis to antithesis and thence to a higher and richer synthesis. He was one of the great modern creators of a philosophical system that influenced the development of existentialism, Marxism, positivism, and analytic philosophy. A brief account of the life and works of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel follows; for a full biography, see Hegelianism, Hegel and. Hegel graduated from the University of Tbingen in 1790 after studying philosophy. While tutoring in Berne for three years he became impressed with Kant's philosophy. In 1796 he obtained a tutorship at Frankfurt am Main. Convinced that the limitations placed on reason by Kant were unjustified, he began to work out his phenomenology of mind. A new phase in his career began at Jena (1801), where his lectures reflected the continuing evolution of his thought. Hegel's first great work, Phnomenologie des Geistes (1807; The Phenomenology of Mind), describes how the human mind has risen from mere consciousness, through self-consciousness, reason, spirit, and religion, to absolute knowledge. Between 1812 and 1816 he published Wissenschaft der Logik (Science of Logic), in which his system was first presented in what was essentially its ultimate shape; this work earned him the professorship at the University of Heidelberg, where the keynote of his teaching was to present the entire universe as a systematic whole. The compendium of his dialectical system is the Encyklopdie der philosophischen Wissenschaften im Grundrisse (1817). Hegel accepted the chair of philosophy at the University of Berlin (1818), published his Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts (1821; The Philosophy of Right), and then devoted himself almost solely to his lectures. He was rector of the university in 1830 and died the following year of cholera. born Aug. 27, 1770, Stuttgart, Wrttemberg died Nov. 14, 1831, Berlin German philosopher who developed a dialectical scheme that emphasized the progress of history and of ideas from thesis to antithesis and thence to a synthesis. Hegel was the last of the great philosophical system builders of modern times. His work, following upon that of Immanuel Kant, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, and Friedrich Schelling, thus marks the pinnacle of classical German philosophy. As an absolute Idealist inspired by Christian insights and grounded in his mastery of a fantastic fund of concrete knowledge, Hegel found a place for everything-logical, natural, human, and divine-in a dialectical scheme that repeatedly swung from thesis to antithesis and back again to a higher and richer synthesis. His influence has been as fertile in the reactions that he precipitated-in Sren Kierkegaard, the Danish Existentialist; in the Marxists, who turned to social action; in the Vienna Positivists; and in G.E. Moore, a pioneering figure in British Analytic philosophy-as in his positive impact. Additional reading Works A collected edition of Hegel's published works, together with a great deal of material culled from his lectures, was published by his pupils within a few years of his death in 1831. This edition, with some rearrangement, was reissued by Hermann Glockner in 26 volumes, including a comprehensive index (1927-40). In 1905 the Philosophische Bibliothek (Leipzig, later Hamburg) began publication of a new edition with a carefully revised text edited by Georg Lasson and later by Johannes Hoffmeister; volumes appeared for more than 50 years, but it was not completed. It has been enhanced by a comprehensive edition sponsored by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, which is to contain about 50 volumes. The first volume appeared in 1968. English translations of most of Hegel's works were published in the late 19th and early 20th century, but, apart from those by William Wallace (Logic and Mind-i.e., the first and third parts of the Encyclopaedia), they are not always satisfactory and they have no notes. With a view to remedying this deficiency, new English translations have appeared of some works, including Philosophy of Right (1942, often reprinted) and Science of Logic (1969), as well as translations of writings not translated previously, such as Early Theological Writings (1948; rev. ed., 1971), and Philosophy of Nature, 3 vol. (1970), the second part of the Encyclopaedia. With the exception of Science of Logic and the Oxford translation of Philosophy of Nature, all these translations are annotated. Life and philosophy Raymond Plant, Hegel (1973), is a study of origins of his thought; and Charles Taylor, Hegel (1975), is a study of the development of his philosophy. An excellent short account of Hegel's philosophy in English is Edward Caird, Hegel (1883, reissued 1972), but it has been updated in certain respects by G.R.G. Mure, The Philosophy of Hegel (1965); and in more detail by Walter A. Kaufmann, Hegel (1965, reissued 1978). An attempt to interest modern philosophers in Hegel is contained in J.N. Findlay, Hegel (1958, reissued 1976), but this important and lively work is for consideration only by those already acquainted with Hegel. As an introduction, G.R.G. Mure, An Introduction to Hegel (1940, reprinted 1982), is more reliable but it is not an exposition. A standard long exposition of Hegel's mature system is Kuno Fischer, Hegels Leben, Werke und Lehre, especially the 2nd ed. (1911, reprinted 1976); while in English there is Walter T. Stace, The Philosophy of Hegel (1924). In 1900 Wilhelm Dilthey maintained that Hegel could be understood only if there were a study of his early manuscripts; on the basis of these, Dilthey wrote Die Jugendgeschichte Hegels (1906, reissued 1968), a history of Hegel's development. This seminal work, hardly noticed at all by writers in English before 1965, gave rise to an immense literature in Germany, France, and Italy. An important and brilliant study of the young Hegel is Georg Lukacs, Der junge Hegel (1948; Eng. trans. 1975), written from a Marxist point of view. An exhaustive study is that of Theodor Haering, Hegel: sein Wollen und sein Werk, 2 vol. (1929-38, reissued 1979). Reliable and more readable than this are the two volumes of Hermann Glockner issued (1929 and 1940) as an appendix to his edition of the collected works. Even these, however, have been outdated by the flood of material collected by the Hegel-Archiv at Bochum in Germany and published in a series of volumes of Hegel-Studien (1961 and subsequent years), and by the four volumes of Hegel's letters, ed. by Johannes Hoffmeister (1952-60). An admirable, but now obsolete, biography is by Karl Rosenkranz (1824). Specialized commentaries (Mind): Judith N. Shklar, Freedom and Independence: A Study of the Political Ideas of Hegel's "Phenomenology of Mind" (1976), is a guidebook and commentary. (Phenomenology of Spirit): Jean Hyppolite, Gense et structure de la Phnomnologie de l'Esprit de Hegel (1946, reissued 1970). (Logic): G.R.G. Mure, A Study of Hegel's Logic (1950, reissued 1967); Stanley Rosen, G.W.F. Hegel: An Introduction to the Science of Wisdom (1974), is a study of the development and meaning of his dialectic; and Hans-Georg Gadamer, Hegel's Dialectic: Five Hermeneutical Studies (1976), is an analysis for specialists. (Nature): The apparatus in the English translation by M.J. Petry, 3 vol. (1970), provides a full and learned commentary. (Law, morality, and the state): Wilhelm Seeberger, Hegel; oder, die Entwicklung des Geistes zur Freiheit (1961), is a good introduction to Hegel's thought as a whole; but Hugh A. Reyburn, The Ethical Theory of Hegel (1921, reissued 1970); and Franz Rosenzweig, Hegel und der Staat, 2 vol. (1920, reissued 1962), are excellent summaries, and the latter is a commentary as well. Shlomo Avineri, Hegel's Theory of the Modern State (1972), is an account of his political thought. See also George A. Kelly, Hegel's Retreat from Eleusis: Studies in Political Thought (1978). (Art): Jack Kaminsky, Hegel on Art (1962, reissued 1970), is a fair summary of Hegel's lectures. (Religion): Thomas M. Knox, A Layman's Quest (1969), deals, in chapters 5 and 6, not only with Hegel's lectures on the philosophy of religion but also with all his other writings elsewhere on religion; Bernard M.G. Reardon, Hegel's Philosophy of Religion (1977), is a summary. (History): Burleigh T. Wilkins, Hegel's Philosophy of History (1974), is an introduction; and George D. O'Brien, Hegel on Reason and History: A Contemporary Reinterpretation (1975), questions his reputation as an anti-empirical, apriorist thinker.