Paul Strathern - Hegel - Philosophy in an Hour

Hegel

PHILOSOPHY IN AN HOUR

Paul Strathern

Harper Press An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

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Copyright © 1997 by Paul Strathern

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IN AN HOUR is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Ebook Edition © JUNE 2012 ISBN: 9780007466214

Version: 2016-09-12

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Title Page Hegel PHILOSOPHY IN AN HOUR Paul Strathern

Copyright Copyright Copyright Introduction Hegel’s Life and Works Afterword Keep Reading Further Information From Hegel’s Writings Chronology of Significant Philosophical Dates Chronology of Hegel’s Life Chronology of Hegel’s Era Recommended Reading About the Author About the Publisher Harper Press An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk Copyright © 1997 by Paul Strathern Paul Strathern asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work IN AN HOUR is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. Cover image © Universal Images Group / Getty Images A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks HarperCollins Publishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication Ebook Edition © JUNE 2012 ISBN: 9780007466214 Version: 2016-09-12

Introduction Introduction In 1770, the year of Hegel’s birth, Kant delivered his inaugural dissertation at the University of Königsberg. In the same year the poets Hölderlin and Wordsworth were born. The seeds of ecstatic lyricism and profoundly sober systemization were sown: the extremes of subjectivity and objectivity. Europe stood on the brink of its greatest transformation since the Renaissance. The French Revolution was the political manifestation of this change; the Romantic Movement was its cultural expression. Meanwhile the Industrial Revolution was to change the face of the entire continent. And within years of Hegel’s death, Marx was preparing a further transformation which was to change the face of the twentieth century. Hegel was to be profoundly involved in both these transformations. In a U-turn such as could only have been encompassed by his celebrated dialectical method, the student Hegel welcomed the French Revolution, and the aged Hegel sang the praises of the arch-conservative Prussian state. In the hands of Hegel, the dialectical method produced the most elephantine philosophical system known to man, a monolith in praise of the monolithic state. Yet in the hands of his avid follower Marx, Hegel’s method was to produce the greatest revolution since the French Revolution, which in its turn produced the most elephantine political system known to man (which in many aspects bore an uncanny resemblance to the Prussian state). This was much how Hegel’s dialectical system was meant to work, though he probably wouldn’t have seen it this way.

Hegel’s Life and Works

Afterword

Keep Reading

Further Information

From Hegel’s Writings

Chronology of Significant Philosophical Dates

Chronology of Hegel’s Life

Chronology of Hegel’s Era

Recommended Reading

About the Author

About the Publisher

In 1770, the year of Hegel’s birth, Kant delivered his inaugural dissertation at the University of Königsberg. In the same year the poets Hölderlin and Wordsworth were born. The seeds of ecstatic lyricism and profoundly sober systemization were sown: the extremes of subjectivity and objectivity. Europe stood on the brink of its greatest transformation since the Renaissance. The French Revolution was the political manifestation of this change; the Romantic Movement was its cultural expression.

Meanwhile the Industrial Revolution was to change the face of the entire continent. And within years of Hegel’s death, Marx was preparing a further transformation which was to change the face of the twentieth century.

Hegel was to be profoundly involved in both these transformations. In a U-turn such as could only have been encompassed by his celebrated dialectical method, the student Hegel welcomed the French Revolution, and the aged Hegel sang the praises of the arch-conservative Prussian state.

In the hands of Hegel, the dialectical method produced the most elephantine philosophical system known to man, a monolith in praise of the monolithic state. Yet in the hands of his avid follower Marx, Hegel’s method was to produce the greatest revolution since the French Revolution, which in its turn produced the most elephantine political system known to man (which in many aspects bore an uncanny resemblance to the Prussian state). This was much how Hegel’s dialectical system was meant to work, though he probably wouldn’t have seen it this way.

‘The height of audacity in serving up pure nonsense, in stringing together senseless and extravagant mazes of words, such as had previously only been known in madhouses, was finally reached in Hegel, and became the instrument of the most barefaced general mystification that has ever taken place, with a result which will appear fabulous to posterity, and will remain as a monument to German stupidity’. So wrote Schopenhauer, who was Hegel’s colleague at the University of Berlin. This remark is not intended to prejudice but merely to warn. With Hegel, philosophy becomes a matter of extreme seriousness , so we’d best get any jokes out of the way right at the start. As an earnest English hellfire preacher of the period commented while delivering a sermon to an amused fashionable audience in Bath, ‘There’s no hope for them that laughs’.