Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
(1770-1831)

Life and Works . . Dialectic . . Subjective . . Objective . . Absolute Bibliography Internet Sources

Born in Stuttgart and educated in Tübingen, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel devoted his life wholly to academic pursuits, teaching at Jena, Nuremberg, Heidelberg, and Berlin. His Wissenschaft der Logik (Science of Logic) (1812-1816) attributes the unfolding of concepts of reality in terms of the pattern of dialectical reasoning (thesis — antithesis — synthesis) that Hegel believed to be the only method of progress in human thought, and Die Encyclopädie der philosophischen Wissenschaften im Grundrisse (Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences) (1817) describes the application of this dialectic to all areas of human knowledge. Hegel's Naturrecht und Staatswissenschaft im Grundrisse and Gundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts (Philosophy of Right) (1820) provide an intellectual foundation for modern nationalism.

Hegel's absolute idealism is evident even in the early Phänomenologie des Geistes (Phenomenology of Mind) (1807). There Hegel criticized the traditional epistemological distinction of objective from subjective and offered his own dialectical account of the development of consciousness from individual sensation through social concern with ethics and politics to the pure consciousness of the World-Spirit in art, religion, and philosophy. The result is a comprehensive world-view that encompasses the historical development of civilization in all of its forms.

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Recommended Reading: Primary sources: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Gesammelte Werke (Meiner, 1968- ) The Hegel Reader, ed. by Stephen Houlgate (Blackwell, 1998) {Order from Amazon.com} Hegel's Science of Logic, tr. by A. V. Miller (Humanity, 1998) {Order from Amazon.com} Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit, tr. by A. V. Miller and J. N. Findlay (Oxford, 1979) {Order from Amazon.com} Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Philosophy of History, tr. by J. Sibree (Dover, 1956) {Order from Amazon.com} Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Elements of the Philosophy of Right, tr. by A. Wood and H. Nisbet (Cambridge, 1991) {Order from Amazon.com} Secondary sources: The Cambridge Companion to Hegel, ed. by Frederick C. Beiser (Cambridge, 1993) {Order from Amazon.com} Walter Kaufmann, (Notre Dame, 1997) {Order from Amazon.com} Peter Singer, Hegel (Oxford, 1983) {Order from Amazon.com} Charles Taylor, Hegel and Modern Society (Cambridge, 1979) {Order from Amazon.com} Feminist Interpretations of G.W.F. Hegel, ed. by Patricia J. Mills (Penn. State, 1996) {Order from Amazon.com} Quentin Lauer, Hegel's Idea of Philosophy (Fordham, 1983) {Order from Amazon.com} Raymond Plant, Hegel (Routledge, 1999) {Order from Amazon.com} Justus Hartnack, An Introduction to Hegel's Logic (Hackett, 1998) {Order from Amazon.com} Judith Butler, Subjects of Desire (Columbia, 1999) {Order from Amazon.com} Jon Stewart, The Phenomenology of Spirit Reader: Critical and Interpretive Essays (SUNY, 1997) {Order from Amazon.com} William Maker, Philosophy Without Foundations: Rethinking Hegel (SUNY, 1994) {Order this book from Amazon.com} Allen W. Wood, Hegel's Ethical Thought (Cambridge, 1990) {Order from Amazon.com} Joseph McCarney, The Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Hegel on History (Routledge, 2000) {Order from Amazon.com} Herbert Marcuse, Reason and Revolution: Hegel and the Rise of Social Theory (Humanity, 1999) {Order from Amazon.com}

Additional on-line information about Hegel includes:

• Paul Redding's thorough article in * The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
• Peter Singer's article in The Oxford Companion to Philosophy.
• Related OCP articles on: the Absolute, concrete universals, German philosophy, Hegelianism, philosophy of history, idealism, master and slave, metaphysics, nationalism, the owl of Minerva, political philosophy, progress, philosophy of religion, philosophical romanticism, the State, Vorstellung, and world-soul.
• The thorough collection of resources at EpistemeLinks.com.
• The article in the Columbia Encyclopedia at Bartleby.com.
• A glossary of Hegelian terminology from Carl Mickelesen.
• Andy Blunden's extensive Hegel by Hypertext site.
• A section on Hegel from Alfred Weber's history of philosophy.
• Snippets from Hegel in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.
• Andrew Buchwalter on Hegel's philosophy of law.
• An outline of the Encyclopedia by W. T. Stace.
• A summary discussion from G. J. Mattey.
• An analysis of Hegel's system by Herbert Marcuse.
• A philosophical biography from Uwe Wiedemann.
• Antoinette M. Stafford's feminist critique of Hegel.
• William Turner's article in The Catholic Encyclopedia.
• The Bloomsbury Guide to Human Thought on Nationalism.
• A summary treatment from Robert Sarkissian.
• Björn Christensson's brief guide to Hegel on-line.
• The Macmillan Encyclopedia 2001 on Hegel and Hegelianism.

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©1996-2001 Garth Kemerling.
Questions, comments, and suggestions may be sent to: gkemerling@philosophypages.com