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Few thinkers are more controversial in the history of philosophy than Hegel. He has been dismissed as a charlatan and
obscurantist, but also praised as one of the greatest thinkers in modern philosophy. No one interested in philosophy can afford
to ignore him. This volume considers all the major aspects of Hegel's work: epistemology, logic, ethics, political philosophy,
aesthetics, philosophy of history, philosophy of religion. Special attention is devoted to problems in the interpretation
of Hegel: the unity of the Phenomenology of Spirit; the value of the dialectical method; the status of his logic; the nature
of his politics. A final group of chapters treats Hegel's complex historical legacy: the development of Hegelianism and its
growth into a left and right wing school; the relation of Hegel and Marx; and the subtle connections between Hegel and contemporary
analytic philosophy.
[Wikipedia] like many philosophers, Hegel assumed that his readers would be well-versed in Western philosophy,
up to and including Descartes, Hume, Kant, Fichte, and Schelling. For those wishing to read his work without this background,
introductions to and commentaries about Hegel can contribute to comprehension, although the reader is faced with multiple
interpretations of Hegel's writings from incompatible schools of philosophy...
Scientist Ludwig Boltzmann also criticized the obscure complexity of Hegel's works, referring to Hegel's writing as an
"unclear thoughtless flow of words". Bertrand Russell stated that Hegel was "the hardest to understand of all the great philosophers"
in his Unpopular Essays and A History of Western Philosophy.
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p.1 Hegel remains the watershed of modern philosophy, the source from which its many streams emanate and
divide. If the modern philosopher wants to know the roots of his own position, sooner or later he will have to turn
to Hegel.
p.1 Hegel demands our attention for more than historical reasons. If we consider any fundamental
philosophical problem, we find that Hegel has proposed an interesting solution for it.
p.63 self-consciousness is desire in general
p.88 Differences, however, are not things we can simply refer to; they are not directly seen or heard. They
must be thought: they result from an act of comparison.
p.219 Hegel explicitly distinguishes his conception of positive freedom from the "superficial" everyday
notion of freedom as the ability to do as you please
p.247 Hegel's main critical question is, To what extent does the kind of act or intention in question
succeed at its aim? Hegel argued that the conditions for successful free action are enormously rich and ultimately
involve membership in a well-ordered state... Whoever rationally wills an end is rationally committed to willing the
requisite means or conditions for achieving that end... Principles, practices, and institutions are justified by
showing that they play a necessary and irreplaceable role in achieving freedom.
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