Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a German philosopher and one of the most influential figures of German idealism and 19th-century philosophy. His influence extends across the entire range of contemporary philosophical topics, from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political philosophy, the philosophy of history, philosophy of art, philosophy of religion, and the history of philosophy. Hegel was born in 1770 in Stuttgart, the capital of the Duchy of Württemberg in southwestern Germany. He was the eldest of three children of a civil servant who worked for the ducal revenue administration. He received his early education at the Stuttgart Gymnasium, where he excelled in languages, literature, and religion. He also developed a keen interest in ancient Greek culture and philosophy. In 1788, Hegel entered the Tübinger Stift, a Protestant seminary affiliated with the University of Tübingen. There he studied theology and philosophy with some of the leading scholars of his time, such as Friedrich Schelling and Friedrich Hölderlin. He also became friends with them and formed a literary circle that shared a common enthusiasm for the ideals of the French Revolution and the Enlightenment. After graduating in 1793, Hegel became a private tutor for several aristocratic families in Switzerland and Germany. During this period, he continued his philosophical studies and wrote his first major work, The Phenomenology of Spirit (1807), which traces the development of human consciousness from sense perception to absolute knowledge. The Phenomenology is also famous for introducing Hegel's dialectical method, which involves the movement from a thesis to an antithesis and then to a synthesis that incorporates and transcends both. In 1801, Hegel obtained his doctorate from the University of Jena and became a lecturer there. He collaborated with Schelling on the Critical Journal of Philosophy and published several essays on topics such as logic, metaphysics, ethics, and aesthetics. He also witnessed the Battle of Jena in 1806, which marked the defeat of Prussia by Napoleon's army. This event had a profound impact on Hegel's political thought and his conception of history as a rational process driven by the struggle for freedom. After Jena, Hegel moved to Bamberg, where he worked as a newspaper editor for a year. He then accepted a position as a headmaster at a gymnasium in Nuremberg, where he stayed for eight years. During this time, he married Marie von Tucher, a daughter of a prominent Nuremberg family, and had three sons. He also wrote his second major work, The Science of Logic (1812-1816), which is a systematic exposition of his metaphysical system based on the concept of being. In 1816, Hegel was appointed as a professor of philosophy at the University of Heidelberg. There he published his Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences (1817), which is a condensed version of his entire philosophical system divided into three parts: logic, nature, and spirit. The Encyclopedia also contains his famous Philosophy of Right (1821), which deals with the principles of law, morality, and politics. In 1818, Hegel moved to Berlin, where he became the most influential philosopher in Germany. He lectured at the University of Berlin on various topics such as history, art, religion, and literature. He also founded the Berlin Hegelian School, which attracted many students and followers who later developed their own versions of Hegelianism. Hegel also participated in the public debates of his time and defended his views against the criticisms of his opponents, such as the Romantics, the Young Hegelians, and the Schellingians. Hegel died in 1831 from cholera, which was epidemic in Berlin at that time. He was buried at the Dorotheenstadt Cemetery, where many other famous German intellectuals are also buried. His legacy is immense and controversial, as he influenced many subsequent philosophical schools and movements, both within and outside Germany. Some of his admirers include Karl Marx, Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Jacques Derrida. Some of his critics include Arthur Schopenhauer, Ludwig Feuerbach, Karl Popper, Bertrand Russell, and Richard Rorty.