Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) was a German philosopher. He 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, celebrates the pinnacle of classical German philosophy.
Hegel was born in Stuttgart. His teaching career was disrupted in 1806 by Napoleon I’s victory at the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt. When headmaster of the gymnasium at Nuremberg 1808–16, he published his first great work Phanomenologie des Geistes (1807; The Phenomenology of Mind,) which explains how the human mind has progressed from mere consciousness through self-consciousness, reason, spirit, and religion, to absolute knowledge.
Hegel is also known for his three-stage process of dialectical reasoning, set out in his Wissenschaft der Logik (1812–16; Science of Logic,) which underlies his idealist concepts of the progress of history, and the evolution of ideas and human consciousness.
As a total idealist inspired by Christian insights and grounded in his mastery of concrete knowledge, Hegel expounded all of the knowledge—logical, natural, human, and divine—in a dialectical scheme that shifted from thesis to antithesis and back again to a higher and richer synthesis. In 1817, he produced a compendium of his entire philosophical system entitled Encyclopadie der philosophischen Wissenschaften in Grundrisse (Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences, Comprising Logic, Philosophy of Nature and of Mind.)
Hegel’s impact on ensuing generations is immeasurable. Hegel influenced the Danish existentialist Søren Kierkegaard, the Marxists who turned to social action, and the analytic philosopher Bertrand Russell.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
What experience and history teach is this — that nations and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Topics: History, One liners
What is rational is actual, and what is actual is rational.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
We may affirm absolutely that nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Topics: Accomplishment
Nothing is easier than to judge what has substance and quality; to comprehend it is harder; and what is hardest is to combine both functions and produce an account of it.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
The courage of the truth is the first condition of philosophic study.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Topics: Philosophy
The true courage of civilized nations is readiness for sacrifice in the service of the state, so that the individual counts as only one amongst many. The important thing here is not personal mettle but aligning oneself with the universal.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Nothing great in this world has been accomplished without passion.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Topics: Accomplishment, Greatness & Great Things, Enthusiasm
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