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Hegel (1770-1831) is one of the major philosophers of the nineteenth century. Many of the major philosophical movements of the twentieth century - from existentialism to analytic philosophy - grew out of reactions against Hegel. He is also one of the hardest philosophers to understand and his complex ideas, though rewarding, are often misunderstood.
In this magisterial and lucid introduction, Frederick Beiser covers every major aspect of Hegel's thought. He places Hegel in the historical context of nineteenth-century Germany whilst clarifying the deep insights and originality of Hegel's philosophy.
A masterpiece of clarity and scholarship, Hegel is both the ideal starting point for those coming to Hegel for the first time and essential reading for any student or scholar of nineteenth century philosophy.
Additional
In this magisterial and lucid introduction, Frederick Beiser covers every major aspect of Hegel's thought. He places Hegel in the historical context of nineteenth-century Germany whilst clarifying the deep insights and originality of Hegel's philosophy.
A masterpiece of clarity and scholarship, Hegel is both the ideal starting point for those coming to Hegel for the first time and essential reading for any student or scholar of nineteenth century philosophy.
Additional
384 pages, Paperback
First published April 19, 2005
76 people are currently reading
1375 people want to read
About the author
Frederick C. Beiser
31 books101 followersFrederick C. Beiser, one of the leading scholars of German Idealism, is a Professor of Philosophy at Syracuse University. Prior to joining Syracuse, he was a member of the faculty at Indiana University, Bloomington where he received a 1999-2000 NEH Faculty Fellowship. He has also taught at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Harvard and Yale University. Beiser earned his DPhil. degree from Oxford University under the direction of Charles Taylor and Isaiah Berlin.
Beiser's first book, The Fate of Reason: German Philosophy from Kant to Fichte (Harvard, 1987) was widely influential in revising the commonly held, but notorious accounts of German Idealism. In this book, Beiser sought to reconstruct the background of German Idealism through the narration of the story of the Spinoza or Pantheism controversy. Consequently, a great many figures, whose importance was hardly recognized by the English speaking philosophers, were given their proper due.
Beiser has also written on the German Romantics and 19th century British philosophy.
Beiser's first book, The Fate of Reason: German Philosophy from Kant to Fichte (Harvard, 1987) was widely influential in revising the commonly held, but notorious accounts of German Idealism. In this book, Beiser sought to reconstruct the background of German Idealism through the narration of the story of the Spinoza or Pantheism controversy. Consequently, a great many figures, whose importance was hardly recognized by the English speaking philosophers, were given their proper due.
Beiser has also written on the German Romantics and 19th century British philosophy.
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May 9, 2018
در بین شروحی که از هگل خوانده ام، بهترین و جامعترین بود
ای کاش باقی کتابهای «راهنمای فلسفه» راتلج هم توسط اساتید این حوزه ترجمه شود (البته از نظر من حسینی به خوبی از پس ترجمه این اثر برآمده است). بدون شک این سری از سری «اندیشه گران انتقادی» که مرکز ترجمه کرده از هر نظر بهتر است؛ ولی متاسفانه این تمایل بازار (و هاضمه فست فودی) است که ناشران را به ترجمه این یا آن اثر هدایت میکند
هگلِ بایزر کتابی است در هفت بخش: اهمیت هگل و زندگینامه مختصر او؛ زمینه فکری-فرهنگی دوران هگل؛ ایده های متافیزیکی (ایدئالیسم مطلق، ارگانیسم، روح و مفهوم خدا)؛ ایده های معرفت شناسانه (دیالکتیک، میان سوژگانی و خودآگاهی)؛ فلسفه سیاسی-اجتماعی هگل؛ فلسفه تاریخ و زیبایی شناسی هگل و نهایتا هگل گرایی
هرچند میتوان برخی ایده های بایزر (مثلا جدا کردن متافیزیک و معرفت شناسی در کسی مثل هگل) را به چالش کشید، یا به طولانی بودن بی دلیل بعضی فصل ها ایراد گرفت، اما درمجموع اثری بی همتا، عالی و خوشخوان بود
اگر کمی فلسفه (و کانت) میدانید و در عین حال میخواهید تنها یک اثر فارسی خوب درباره هگل بخوانید که فلسفه او را تا حدی «بفهمید» این اثر را پیشنهاد میکنم
ای کاش باقی کتابهای «راهنمای فلسفه» راتلج هم توسط اساتید این حوزه ترجمه شود (البته از نظر من حسینی به خوبی از پس ترجمه این اثر برآمده است). بدون شک این سری از سری «اندیشه گران انتقادی» که مرکز ترجمه کرده از هر نظر بهتر است؛ ولی متاسفانه این تمایل بازار (و هاضمه فست فودی) است که ناشران را به ترجمه این یا آن اثر هدایت میکند
هگلِ بایزر کتابی است در هفت بخش: اهمیت هگل و زندگینامه مختصر او؛ زمینه فکری-فرهنگی دوران هگل؛ ایده های متافیزیکی (ایدئالیسم مطلق، ارگانیسم، روح و مفهوم خدا)؛ ایده های معرفت شناسانه (دیالکتیک، میان سوژگانی و خودآگاهی)؛ فلسفه سیاسی-اجتماعی هگل؛ فلسفه تاریخ و زیبایی شناسی هگل و نهایتا هگل گرایی
هرچند میتوان برخی ایده های بایزر (مثلا جدا کردن متافیزیک و معرفت شناسی در کسی مثل هگل) را به چالش کشید، یا به طولانی بودن بی دلیل بعضی فصل ها ایراد گرفت، اما درمجموع اثری بی همتا، عالی و خوشخوان بود
اگر کمی فلسفه (و کانت) میدانید و در عین حال میخواهید تنها یک اثر فارسی خوب درباره هگل بخوانید که فلسفه او را تا حدی «بفهمید» این اثر را پیشنهاد میکنم
June 29, 2020
مطالعه این کتاب، برای من تجربه بسیار شیرینی بود. نویسنده ابعاد مختلف فلسفه هگل را به شکلی جامع، در بستر تاریخی خودش و در فصول مجزا مورد بررسی قرار داده است. در این بررسیها، آرای منتقدان را نیز مطرح کرده و به آنها پاسخ میدهد. بیزر در همراهی یا مخالفت با منتقدان، به شکل استادانهای در فلسفه هگل عمیق میشود و قوت و ضعفهای آن را بیرون میکشد و در برابر تفسیرهای تقلیلگرا میایستد.
از آنجا که نویسنده آرای هگل را در بستر زمانه خودش شرح میدهد، نسبت آن را با فلاسفه دیگری نظیر کانت، یا رمانتیکها و حتی به شکل محدودی با فلاسفه اگزیستانسیالیست، مثل کیرکگور، مشخص میکند. بنابراین هرچند به شکل محدود و ناقص، برای خوانندهای مبتدی چون من، تصویری از جایگاه هر یک از این فلاسفه در کلیت اندیشه فلسفی، به دست میدهد.
بیزر در پایان کتاب، فهرستی از آثاری تهیه کرده است که برای مطالعه بیشتر درباره هگل مناسب هستند و درباره هر کدام، توضیح مختصری نیز ارائه کرده که بسیار قابل توجه است.
چنین کتابهایی و ترجمه چنین کتابهایی به فارسی، بیش باد!
از آنجا که نویسنده آرای هگل را در بستر زمانه خودش شرح میدهد، نسبت آن را با فلاسفه دیگری نظیر کانت، یا رمانتیکها و حتی به شکل محدودی با فلاسفه اگزیستانسیالیست، مثل کیرکگور، مشخص میکند. بنابراین هرچند به شکل محدود و ناقص، برای خوانندهای مبتدی چون من، تصویری از جایگاه هر یک از این فلاسفه در کلیت اندیشه فلسفی، به دست میدهد.
بیزر در پایان کتاب، فهرستی از آثاری تهیه کرده است که برای مطالعه بیشتر درباره هگل مناسب هستند و درباره هر کدام، توضیح مختصری نیز ارائه کرده که بسیار قابل توجه است.
چنین کتابهایی و ترجمه چنین کتابهایی به فارسی، بیش باد!
December 20, 2019
I read and reviewed a seriously bad summary of Hegel’s ideas in 2011 – and then a couple weeks ago Jeffrey asked if I knew of a good summary, and that alerted Allen to recommend this one. The problem is that Hegel can be so complicated, that a simplified version of his ideas can quickly end up so simple as to miss the point – as the Hegel in 90 minutes book proved to be. Other ‘introductions’ to his work can be at least as difficult as he is, which also somewhat misses the point. I got to this quicker than I expected. If you are even slightly interested in finding out more about Hegel, this does seem to be the book to read.
What I particularly liked about it is that it puts Hegel into the context of his time and also the context of the philosophical issues that were bouncing around at the time too. The thing about Hegel is that he was setting about to create an all-encompassing philosophical system – and so he covers an awful lot of ground, from law to art, from logic to the history of philosophy.
One of the things that most people know about Hegel is that his system is premised upon a triadic formula – thesis, antithesis and synthesis. Having read a bit of Hegel over the years I’ve always known this was a bit of an oversimplification, but I was a bit surprised to find out that this formula is not mentioned in any of Hegel’s works. In the 90 minutes book mentioned above he says that Hegel is boring to read because everything he writes is in this step, step, hop triad and that quickly gets tedious – a bit like poets who write in strict iambic soon get to the point where you stop hearing what they are saying and just hear the dum-tee-dum-tee-dum. The author here points out that one of Hegel’s main criticisms of Kant was that he had his method already worked out before he started, and that Hegel’s ‘method’ is essentially an ‘anti-method’ – rather than being a strict hop, step, jump, it is focused on the inner logic of the phenomena under consideration. That is, that rather than him having a single formula that he wanted to apply to the world, he actually wanted to see the complexity of the world and to then allow our understanding of that complexity to come out of the complexity itself.
The chapter here on dialectics is worth reading on its own – since his dialectics is, in certain senses, the heart of Hegel’s way of understanding the world. I know, that sounds like I’m contradicting myself after what I said in the last paragraph, but stay with me. My very short version of dialectics is that the world isn’t static, but rather constantly developing. Development implies change and change means things go from being one thing to being something quite different. For something to develop it must involve contradiction – it has to be both what it is while becoming what it is not – if something ‘being one thing and another’ isn’t a contradiction, it is hard to know what would be – but if something is going to change, it pretty much has to be in contradiction with itself. To understand what development is means seeking to understand the contradictions and the relationships they create in that development. That’s pretty much my understanding of dialectics.
Hegel is an idealist – that is, he believes he can answer some of the questions that Kant said had to be left unanswerable. This is where Hegel’s views on religion become particularly interesting. Hegel remained a Christian, but really, this book makes it pretty clear that he wasn’t quite the sort of Christian that most of us would recognise. In fact, he probably would have preferred to have started a new religion based on Socrates, but one battle at a time, I guess. His problem with Christ was that Christ turned away from the world – render onto Caesar and all that – and clearly believed that the world was not only about to end, but that this world was going to be replaced by a better one any day now. For Hegel, this was a kind of blasphemy. Rather than turning away from the world, philosophy and religion needed to turn towards it. He was something of a pantheist, where god and the universe are one and the same – and so, turning away from the universe was seriously missing the point. This becomes quite interesting in the sense that if religion is to be understood in terms of the workings of the universe, then freedom also needs to be understood as constrained by the workings of that universe too.
In fact, the relationship between freedom and necessity for Hegel is a key idea and something that I think is quite different from our standard understanding. For most of us freedom is pretty much what Hegel would refer to as caprice. Freedom is to be without any restraints at all. This is a pretty odd notion of freedom, if you think about it. Even on the most superficial of levels, imposing restrictions upon ourselves, rather than jumping at random from one thing to another, gives us a much more likely idea of being truly ‘free’. For Hegel, understanding and then acting in accordance with necessity is central to true freedom.
There is a lot said here about Hegel’s Philosophy of Right – so much so that once I finished this I read that. I won’t go into that here, then, since I might review that book soon anyway – but I have to say I found his philosophy of right much less conservative and reactionary than I thought I was going to find it. (Well, if you ignore what he says about women, of course – sexist old wanker).
This really was a very good introduction to Hegel – I enjoyed it a lot.
What I particularly liked about it is that it puts Hegel into the context of his time and also the context of the philosophical issues that were bouncing around at the time too. The thing about Hegel is that he was setting about to create an all-encompassing philosophical system – and so he covers an awful lot of ground, from law to art, from logic to the history of philosophy.
One of the things that most people know about Hegel is that his system is premised upon a triadic formula – thesis, antithesis and synthesis. Having read a bit of Hegel over the years I’ve always known this was a bit of an oversimplification, but I was a bit surprised to find out that this formula is not mentioned in any of Hegel’s works. In the 90 minutes book mentioned above he says that Hegel is boring to read because everything he writes is in this step, step, hop triad and that quickly gets tedious – a bit like poets who write in strict iambic soon get to the point where you stop hearing what they are saying and just hear the dum-tee-dum-tee-dum. The author here points out that one of Hegel’s main criticisms of Kant was that he had his method already worked out before he started, and that Hegel’s ‘method’ is essentially an ‘anti-method’ – rather than being a strict hop, step, jump, it is focused on the inner logic of the phenomena under consideration. That is, that rather than him having a single formula that he wanted to apply to the world, he actually wanted to see the complexity of the world and to then allow our understanding of that complexity to come out of the complexity itself.
The chapter here on dialectics is worth reading on its own – since his dialectics is, in certain senses, the heart of Hegel’s way of understanding the world. I know, that sounds like I’m contradicting myself after what I said in the last paragraph, but stay with me. My very short version of dialectics is that the world isn’t static, but rather constantly developing. Development implies change and change means things go from being one thing to being something quite different. For something to develop it must involve contradiction – it has to be both what it is while becoming what it is not – if something ‘being one thing and another’ isn’t a contradiction, it is hard to know what would be – but if something is going to change, it pretty much has to be in contradiction with itself. To understand what development is means seeking to understand the contradictions and the relationships they create in that development. That’s pretty much my understanding of dialectics.
Hegel is an idealist – that is, he believes he can answer some of the questions that Kant said had to be left unanswerable. This is where Hegel’s views on religion become particularly interesting. Hegel remained a Christian, but really, this book makes it pretty clear that he wasn’t quite the sort of Christian that most of us would recognise. In fact, he probably would have preferred to have started a new religion based on Socrates, but one battle at a time, I guess. His problem with Christ was that Christ turned away from the world – render onto Caesar and all that – and clearly believed that the world was not only about to end, but that this world was going to be replaced by a better one any day now. For Hegel, this was a kind of blasphemy. Rather than turning away from the world, philosophy and religion needed to turn towards it. He was something of a pantheist, where god and the universe are one and the same – and so, turning away from the universe was seriously missing the point. This becomes quite interesting in the sense that if religion is to be understood in terms of the workings of the universe, then freedom also needs to be understood as constrained by the workings of that universe too.
In fact, the relationship between freedom and necessity for Hegel is a key idea and something that I think is quite different from our standard understanding. For most of us freedom is pretty much what Hegel would refer to as caprice. Freedom is to be without any restraints at all. This is a pretty odd notion of freedom, if you think about it. Even on the most superficial of levels, imposing restrictions upon ourselves, rather than jumping at random from one thing to another, gives us a much more likely idea of being truly ‘free’. For Hegel, understanding and then acting in accordance with necessity is central to true freedom.
There is a lot said here about Hegel’s Philosophy of Right – so much so that once I finished this I read that. I won’t go into that here, then, since I might review that book soon anyway – but I have to say I found his philosophy of right much less conservative and reactionary than I thought I was going to find it. (Well, if you ignore what he says about women, of course – sexist old wanker).
This really was a very good introduction to Hegel – I enjoyed it a lot.
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January 27, 2019کتاب رو نیمه رها کردم. تخصصی تر از اونه که به کار من بیاد.
June 7, 2021
یکسال قبل حدودا، قبل از اینکه پدیدارشناسی روح رو شروع کنم، این کتاب رو خونده بودم. دوباره در کنار خود متن پدیدارشناسی بعضی از فصولش رو دوره کردم و باید بگم خیلی خیلی در درک پدیدارشناسی و پروژه هگل و بعضی از مفاهیمی که در مواجه اول چندان قابل فهم نیستن به من کمک کرد. ترجمه که بسیار روونه و بیزر به شیوا ترین شکل ممکن هگل رو شرح داده.
April 15, 2023
This book is an insanely good introduction to Hegel, it places him in his historical context which is so important to understand Hegel, the explanation of the absolute, his organicism and his dialectics especially were pristine. It gives A LOT of information so it can be hard to annotate what’s essential but the information is definitely important and is there for a reason. I really love this series it’s so good to get a general overview (especially for very dense philosophies like that of Hegel.
The only thing I found was it lacked a bit of meat on the concept of the spirit and the realm of spirit, I feel like that part could be fleshed out more cause it does a great job at explaining its origins but it doesn’t explain much about it, other than that I am so happy I read this and would recommend it to anyone who wants to get into Hegel but doesn’t want to read Hegel himself. If you want to delve deeper Jean Hyppolite’s works on Hegel are incredible. Kalkavage has a great work on his logic too!
The only thing I found was it lacked a bit of meat on the concept of the spirit and the realm of spirit, I feel like that part could be fleshed out more cause it does a great job at explaining its origins but it doesn’t explain much about it, other than that I am so happy I read this and would recommend it to anyone who wants to get into Hegel but doesn’t want to read Hegel himself. If you want to delve deeper Jean Hyppolite’s works on Hegel are incredible. Kalkavage has a great work on his logic too!
May 15, 2020
ترجمهی بسیار خوبی داره، و اگر آشنایی اندکی با هگل دارید، این کتاب میتونید شروع خوبی برای مطالعه بیشتر دربارهی این فیلسوف مهم و تأثیرگذار باشه.
June 20, 2021
120613: this is the best introduction to hegel i have read, only of three, better than Hegel: A Guide for the Perplexed but i suspect it is about as clear, structured, accessible, as you get with hegel. it is argued that much of hegel can only be understood if you reach an understanding with underlying metaphysics, hence this intro begins even before there…
after some bio, some context, this is actually most of my limited knowledge of hegel. i did not know how much of what we consider identifying with hegel was actually in the air, how the political actions of the french revolution and prussian enlightenment had established the ethical conversation. this seems to suggest his work was not, however much he might protest, independent of his time and place. he popularized the ideals of historical progress as realization of freedom…
shows with the expiration of enlightenment ideals and against rise of romanticism, hegel becomes a proponent of idealism, that he takes onboard and critically engages kantian thought, insisting that we see spirit manifesting itself through history. or at least rationalism. the idea that the rational is the real the real is the rational. the idea that there is progress for realizing freedom from one, to some, to all. this book is structured to parts, moving from early ideals and context, to metaphysics, to epistemology, to social/political, to culture. but it is finally metaphysics that is key to his thought. his guiding includes the absolute, the object-subject identity, the dialectic, the organicism of world, the realm of the spirit, the use of philosophy surpassing art etc. this book mentions hegel’s errors in thought re. evolution etc, but as an intro text does not explore them. there is some mention of right to left spectrum of hegel. some mention of mistaken totalitarianism…
very good book. almost makes me want to read more. almost. not as great as the one in this series on kant Kant, but i think i understood it a bit, and it is helpful to read this in knowing what existentialist/phenomenologists came up against...
after some bio, some context, this is actually most of my limited knowledge of hegel. i did not know how much of what we consider identifying with hegel was actually in the air, how the political actions of the french revolution and prussian enlightenment had established the ethical conversation. this seems to suggest his work was not, however much he might protest, independent of his time and place. he popularized the ideals of historical progress as realization of freedom…
shows with the expiration of enlightenment ideals and against rise of romanticism, hegel becomes a proponent of idealism, that he takes onboard and critically engages kantian thought, insisting that we see spirit manifesting itself through history. or at least rationalism. the idea that the rational is the real the real is the rational. the idea that there is progress for realizing freedom from one, to some, to all. this book is structured to parts, moving from early ideals and context, to metaphysics, to epistemology, to social/political, to culture. but it is finally metaphysics that is key to his thought. his guiding includes the absolute, the object-subject identity, the dialectic, the organicism of world, the realm of the spirit, the use of philosophy surpassing art etc. this book mentions hegel’s errors in thought re. evolution etc, but as an intro text does not explore them. there is some mention of right to left spectrum of hegel. some mention of mistaken totalitarianism…
very good book. almost makes me want to read more. almost. not as great as the one in this series on kant Kant, but i think i understood it a bit, and it is helpful to read this in knowing what existentialist/phenomenologists came up against...
February 24, 2012
I really enjoyed reading this. I am definitely not qualified to pass judgment on his resolution of any of the interpretive questions that he discusses. However, the presentation was very clear and made a lot of sense. I don't claim to be able to understand Hegel despite a fair bit of effort trying, but I would say that Beiser integrated a lot of what I have been able to understand into a larger and more sophisticated picture. At the same time, I felt he introduced new readings of specific theoretical questions doing a good job presenting the conflicting viewpoints and defending his interpretation with interesting arguments as well textual references. I agree strongly, for instance, with the notion that we can't do away with the metaphysical dimension of Hegel's thought, and that it needs to be a key to understand much of what he was doing. I highly recommend to anyone who wants to get a good introduction to Hegel's thought.
October 5, 2025
This is a fantastic guide to the world of Hegel - while I have been dabbling with German philosophy for a while, I have not yet read any Hegel. This will change soon, and I am excited for that (let's see if that excitement lasts), but the aura of intimidation surrounding Hegel keeps one going through secondary literature (each of which is completely at odds with the other's interpretation): at least some of this continuing debate, as it is with Kant, must derive from Hegel's own confused writing. I am also reminded of Schopenhauer, the idol of my philosophical adolescence, making fun of Hegel's prose. And yet, I am attracted by all notions of the absolute, a possible pantheism (?), the organic conception of the world and humanity, and the role of reason in history: and so I must now plunge down the rabbit-hole of Hegelian wizardry.
October 20, 2020
If you don’t know anything about Hegel, this is the secondary lit book I would recommend to you. Beiser is probably the best (that I know of) living Anglophone scholar of German philosophy. He does an excellent job of placing Hegel in the context of the philosophical and political controversies and conflicts of his day. Another great part of this book is the emphasis on Hegel’s definite status as a metaphysician (in the Aristotelian sense) and how he is able to develop a metaphysics that both stands up to and in fact completes Kantian critique. I find the straightforward style of this book a welcome relief from reading (*ahem*, not naming any names) specific French/French influenced readers of Hegel who, let’s just say, take many creative liberties in their interpretation of his work. My only complaints are somewhat subjective: I was looking for a more detailed account of some difficult sections of the Phenomenology (ie the inverted world), but that seemed to be out of the scope of this introductory text. I also thought some of the sections ended a bit abruptly (meaning I wanted even more detail!) But all that aside, this is a great introductory work and clears away a lot of brain cobwebs and misconceptions people seem to have acquired about Hegel during a 200+ year game of interpretative telephone (bc who has the time to actually read the guy? Jk). Above all, Beiser does a great job of showing that Hegel truly is the philosopher of having his cake and eating it too. If you ascribe to him one position, chances are, he has tried to account for both that position and its seeming opposite.
January 20, 2023
Дуже добра книга для тих, хто хоче мати цілісне бачення філософії Геґеля, однак для більш ґрунтовного дослідження не підійде. Багато спрощень.
June 27, 2018
Not being much of a Hegel scholar myself, I can't critique Beiser's interpretation of and engagement with other interpretations of Hegel, but the book came to me highly recommended as a clear and careful introduction to Hegel. It did not disappoint.
For anyone trying to read Hegel without much knowledge of Hegel's intellectual world (neo-Kantianism, German romanticism, Spinoza, and more), Beiser's work will be just the thing to provide the necessary background to Hegel. Many of the central difficulties that Hegel (and others of the time) were trying to navigate at the time are set forward with clear and almost analytic precision, yet the book does not seem to sacrifice careful and nuanced interpretation to simplicity of style. The book also seems quite comprehensive, even including a chapter on Hegel's aesthetics.
Highly recommended for anyone struggling to get a grip on Hegel or anyone who just wants a one volume overview of him.
For anyone trying to read Hegel without much knowledge of Hegel's intellectual world (neo-Kantianism, German romanticism, Spinoza, and more), Beiser's work will be just the thing to provide the necessary background to Hegel. Many of the central difficulties that Hegel (and others of the time) were trying to navigate at the time are set forward with clear and almost analytic precision, yet the book does not seem to sacrifice careful and nuanced interpretation to simplicity of style. The book also seems quite comprehensive, even including a chapter on Hegel's aesthetics.
Highly recommended for anyone struggling to get a grip on Hegel or anyone who just wants a one volume overview of him.
September 27, 2019
A very well written and organized intro to Hegel. I actually comprehended 80-90%, which is pretty high with the vast discrepancy in cognitive levels between the two of us! A little pet peeve I have with Beiser is the almost constant use of the phrase “begs the question” when it is not at all apparent, and he doesn’t explain what question it is “begging”. Just a nit pick though. Highly recommended for beginners.
July 9, 2021
I started reading this book while bored on a plane ride and found I couldn’t put it down. After reading Beiser’s book on the other German Idealists, I was curious as to his take on Hegel himself. Beiser does a wonderful job dispelling myths about Hegel and pinpointing where Hegel’s developments lie. Despite the philosopher’s notorious difficulty, Beiser’s book is extremely readable and I didn’t put it down until I had finished it.
October 11, 2013
A clear, concise overview of Hegel's thought focusing on its historical context. Does not really engage with contemporary retrievals of Hegel, however.
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February 27, 2023ترجمه کتاب واقعا خوبه
February 14, 2018
This book claims to be an introduction to Hegel's thought, but is well beyond that. Within limited space, Beiser managed to cover several pivotal points for any substantial understanding of Hegel.
The greatest virtue of the book is that it not only tries to single out ideas in Hegel that are relevant to our interests nowadays, but also situates them in their original conceptual and historical context, i.e. the post-enlightenment, early-romanticist era in Germany. By what Beiser calls a historical and hermeneutic approach, he was able to show that some of the ideas we usually attribute to Hegel's originality were actually quite common to a whole generation. In this way, Beiser not only brings to life an entire movement that is largely ignored, showing the great dynamicity of thought in it, but also creates the opportunity to locate more precisely Hegel's unique breakthrough. It is only against the background of his contemporaries, such as Fichte, Jacobi and Schelling, that Hegel's genuine greatness becomes manifest.
Specifically, Hegel's breakthrough must be assessed in comparison with the crisis of enlightenment rationalism, Kant and Fichte's subjectivist turn in response, and Jacobi and Schelling's charge that abstract understanding could never come to terms with the infinite - the subject par excellence of philosophy - which must be accessed through feelings or intuition. Hegel's strategy was to admit the limits of understanding but in the meantime to suggest a higher form of thought, i.e. speculative reason. The key difference is that, while understanding confines itself to finite concepts, speculative reason is able to adopt the same concepts and yet to allow them pass over into the infinite. Intuitivists like Schelling failed to see this possibility, because they deflated thought to just conceptual understanding. The intuition they championed, on the other hand, reveals only an inchoate and underdeveloped image of the infinite. Left on its own, it is unable to disclose in great concreteness every implication of the infinite. Speculative reason, however, has the patience to let the inchoate concept "go astray" in its various determination, as well as the tolerance to again incorporate all these determinations, albeit flawed in their own ways, back into itself. The result is a more concretely developed concept of the infinite, and philosophy is precisely this endless development.
Implied in this methodology is Hegel's unique idea of the identity of identity and non-identity. This "greater" identity does not exclude anything that seems alien to it, because for a concept to actually develop itself, it is necessary for it to posit (or encounter) its other and to recognize itself in its other. Moreover, it will become manifest that the other is not so much an absolute other than something whose otherness results only from limits of the context, or what Hegel calls abstraction. As soon as those limits are removed in speculative thought, the other ceases to be an absolute other and is reconciled into a greater whole.
This is the metaphysical principle Beiser finds in Hegel. He then argues that metaphysics is everywhere relevant in Hegel's system, for otherwise some of his claims on ethics or aesthetics would become incomprehensible. In each case, Beiser would first present the apparently opposing positions,then give evidences for / against interpreting Hegel toward either of the positions, and finally show how Hegel's metaphysical ground enables him to hold both while lifting their abstractness.
As a result, Beiser's interpretation of Hegel is balanced and uncompromising. Whenever he can, Beiser would rather make the best out of Hegel rather than dismiss his ideas as outdated, naïve, reactionary, or simply mistaken. This virtue comes mainly from Beiser's comprehensive grasp of the currents of German idealism.
There are, to be sure, points in the book that seem to render Hegel too systematic, as if he has an answer to every question or criticism. This scenario is plausible, yet if we consider Hegel's relation to his time, we are likely to feel that his major concern was not to systematize, but instead to question every system for its purported systematicity. His own system is unique and indefinitely inspiring, not because of its success and perfection, but because it is a failing one, which neither triumphs once and for all, nor fails completely. The dynamicity and openness of Hegel's thought consists precisely in this failing process as a process.
The greatest virtue of the book is that it not only tries to single out ideas in Hegel that are relevant to our interests nowadays, but also situates them in their original conceptual and historical context, i.e. the post-enlightenment, early-romanticist era in Germany. By what Beiser calls a historical and hermeneutic approach, he was able to show that some of the ideas we usually attribute to Hegel's originality were actually quite common to a whole generation. In this way, Beiser not only brings to life an entire movement that is largely ignored, showing the great dynamicity of thought in it, but also creates the opportunity to locate more precisely Hegel's unique breakthrough. It is only against the background of his contemporaries, such as Fichte, Jacobi and Schelling, that Hegel's genuine greatness becomes manifest.
Specifically, Hegel's breakthrough must be assessed in comparison with the crisis of enlightenment rationalism, Kant and Fichte's subjectivist turn in response, and Jacobi and Schelling's charge that abstract understanding could never come to terms with the infinite - the subject par excellence of philosophy - which must be accessed through feelings or intuition. Hegel's strategy was to admit the limits of understanding but in the meantime to suggest a higher form of thought, i.e. speculative reason. The key difference is that, while understanding confines itself to finite concepts, speculative reason is able to adopt the same concepts and yet to allow them pass over into the infinite. Intuitivists like Schelling failed to see this possibility, because they deflated thought to just conceptual understanding. The intuition they championed, on the other hand, reveals only an inchoate and underdeveloped image of the infinite. Left on its own, it is unable to disclose in great concreteness every implication of the infinite. Speculative reason, however, has the patience to let the inchoate concept "go astray" in its various determination, as well as the tolerance to again incorporate all these determinations, albeit flawed in their own ways, back into itself. The result is a more concretely developed concept of the infinite, and philosophy is precisely this endless development.
Implied in this methodology is Hegel's unique idea of the identity of identity and non-identity. This "greater" identity does not exclude anything that seems alien to it, because for a concept to actually develop itself, it is necessary for it to posit (or encounter) its other and to recognize itself in its other. Moreover, it will become manifest that the other is not so much an absolute other than something whose otherness results only from limits of the context, or what Hegel calls abstraction. As soon as those limits are removed in speculative thought, the other ceases to be an absolute other and is reconciled into a greater whole.
This is the metaphysical principle Beiser finds in Hegel. He then argues that metaphysics is everywhere relevant in Hegel's system, for otherwise some of his claims on ethics or aesthetics would become incomprehensible. In each case, Beiser would first present the apparently opposing positions,then give evidences for / against interpreting Hegel toward either of the positions, and finally show how Hegel's metaphysical ground enables him to hold both while lifting their abstractness.
As a result, Beiser's interpretation of Hegel is balanced and uncompromising. Whenever he can, Beiser would rather make the best out of Hegel rather than dismiss his ideas as outdated, naïve, reactionary, or simply mistaken. This virtue comes mainly from Beiser's comprehensive grasp of the currents of German idealism.
There are, to be sure, points in the book that seem to render Hegel too systematic, as if he has an answer to every question or criticism. This scenario is plausible, yet if we consider Hegel's relation to his time, we are likely to feel that his major concern was not to systematize, but instead to question every system for its purported systematicity. His own system is unique and indefinitely inspiring, not because of its success and perfection, but because it is a failing one, which neither triumphs once and for all, nor fails completely. The dynamicity and openness of Hegel's thought consists precisely in this failing process as a process.
March 4, 2021
This is an excellent introduction to Hegel. Beiser succeeds in situating Hegel's project within the crisis of Enlightenment and the various philosophical debates that sprung up as a result. His lucid and engaging account of Hegel positions him within the battlefield of debates around rationalism/empiricism, organic/mechanical metaphysics, necessity/contingency, divinity/nature, dogmatic metaphysics/skepticism, Kantian epistemology, Spinoza and monism and a broad range of other issues. Beiser also reacts against the modern tendency to divorce Hegel's social and political philosophy from his metaphysics (which is seen as excessively mystical and arcane) by demonstrating how Hegel's organic conception of the absolute (and its universal form and purpose) is indispensable in accounting for his teleological, historicist and progressive understanding of history. For the most part Beiser gives an concise and accessible background into the trends in philosophy which spurred Hegel to action (although by necessity, a firmer understanding of Descartes, Leibniz, Hume and Kant should be sought elsewhere to enrich your experience reading Beiser.) There are moments where I feel Beiser unnecessarily repeats explanations of key parts of Hegel's system, making the text a little more laborious to get through (here I'm thinking of Hegel's reliance on Aristotle's form-final cause, which, while extremely important to his overall system, is a rather simple concept that doesn't need to be recounted as frequently as Beiser recounts its). Ultimately he demonstrates that, instead of interpreting Hegel as a radical mystic and transcendent thinker turning away from modernity, Hegel should be seen as trying to rescue reason against the onslaught of skepticism and nihilism, while naturalising religion.
I have read introductions on several other philosophers, and by far this is the most impressive one I've had the pleasure of reading.
I have read introductions on several other philosophers, and by far this is the most impressive one I've had the pleasure of reading.
October 12, 2013
Beiser's book fulfills the aim of the Routledge series of providing contextually informed introductions to the great philosophers (it does this better than the books on Kant and Schopenhauer). In situating Hegel so well in his intellectual context, an approach which is of course fitting considering the importance of wider culture and society to Hegel's thought, he helps the reader have some sympathy with the ideas. I didn't agree with all of Hegel's speculations, but Beiser succeeds in making them never seem pointless.
Beiser sets up his detailed discussion of Hegel's arguments very well with the introductory chapters. Beiser, like most Hegel scholars, describes Hegel's motivation as the attempt to overcome the frustrations of Kantian thinking and the disappointments of the Enlightenment. Beiser does this better than most by showing how interlinked these two concerns were in the mind of a young Hegel first turning to philosophy. Hegel first aimed to be a pamphleteer for Enlightenment, Kantian values, but in the face of events like the Revolutionary Terror thought that Kant left much philosophical work undone.
The subsequent chapters fill out this programme, with Beiser always grounding the grand speculations in the concerns of Hegel's time. Beiser even makes the vaulting ideas about Geist less daunting and alien. Apparently he first developed the concept when discussing the mindset of lovers: like Geist they go outside themselves and realise themselves in another.
Beiser's excellent study is itself a persuasive case for his way of writing commentary, namely part intellectual history, part exposition of the arguments. Philosophy students will need to go on to more focussed books (Houlgate is good for the next level), but this is a rich, interesting study that you'll wish other scholars emulated.
Beiser sets up his detailed discussion of Hegel's arguments very well with the introductory chapters. Beiser, like most Hegel scholars, describes Hegel's motivation as the attempt to overcome the frustrations of Kantian thinking and the disappointments of the Enlightenment. Beiser does this better than most by showing how interlinked these two concerns were in the mind of a young Hegel first turning to philosophy. Hegel first aimed to be a pamphleteer for Enlightenment, Kantian values, but in the face of events like the Revolutionary Terror thought that Kant left much philosophical work undone.
The subsequent chapters fill out this programme, with Beiser always grounding the grand speculations in the concerns of Hegel's time. Beiser even makes the vaulting ideas about Geist less daunting and alien. Apparently he first developed the concept when discussing the mindset of lovers: like Geist they go outside themselves and realise themselves in another.
Beiser's excellent study is itself a persuasive case for his way of writing commentary, namely part intellectual history, part exposition of the arguments. Philosophy students will need to go on to more focussed books (Houlgate is good for the next level), but this is a rich, interesting study that you'll wish other scholars emulated.
April 1, 2017
One of the best books that has been published about the Hegel's philosophy in late decades; Frederick Beiser is a professor of Hegel's studies which he is German originally and one of the familiar Hegel's professors. This book actually have universally viewed of Hegel's philosophy and it could be very good suggestion for those who are beginner student of Hegel's philosophy, which they're need a universal point of view of Hegel's thoughts, to read it. Although, more and less you may found some deficiency and needs about Hegel's logic, but you could be a half-professional Hegel's studies student by reading this book. It have good enough writings and parts about Hegel's metaphysics, religious thoughts, epistemology, political views and historical thought which these are very important subject matters of Hegel. You can read, similarly, attraction criticises upon Hegel's thoughts and other philosophers impress -like Spinoza and Kant- on the philosophy of Hegel. Beside, I think it's could be a good idea for students that also read the Hegel: A very short introduction by Peter Singer to familiarization other demensions of Hegel's philosophy. Certainly, however, for further reading, the Reason and Revolution by Hebert Marcuse is a famous and helpful book for those who want to know more about political and society's thought of Hegel, it has elaborated by a great thinker of twenty century.
January 25, 2015
Beiser always writes exceptional introductions to German philosophy and this book on Hegel doesn't disappoint. Hegel is one of the more caricatured philosophical figures, and this book serves incredibly well to dispel many of the misunderstandings about him by emphasising the fundamental systematic role of metaphysics in his thought. Thereby showing how many of the mythical claims about him (that he was a proto-Fascist, that he misunderstood and regressed from Kant, that his system necessitates world communism, etc) cannot be sustained if his system is properly understood.
I've wrestled with the Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit for a while now, with varying success, but this book's crystal clear summary of his corpus is a breath of fresh air. It has definitely helped me to stand back and have a good look at the system as a whole, to figure out what some of its larger assumptions and problems are. Beiser is exceptional at encouraging a generous but critical eye on Hegel. This is something I find hard sustain when immersed in the more detailed and complex acrobatics of thought within Hegel's own tortured prose.
Of course, this is no substitute to reading Hegel himself, but I've found it to be an excellent sampler and tour guide.
I've wrestled with the Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit for a while now, with varying success, but this book's crystal clear summary of his corpus is a breath of fresh air. It has definitely helped me to stand back and have a good look at the system as a whole, to figure out what some of its larger assumptions and problems are. Beiser is exceptional at encouraging a generous but critical eye on Hegel. This is something I find hard sustain when immersed in the more detailed and complex acrobatics of thought within Hegel's own tortured prose.
Of course, this is no substitute to reading Hegel himself, but I've found it to be an excellent sampler and tour guide.
July 7, 2013
Pretty interesting and well written introduction to Hegel. The path he follows introducing the topics is logical and clear and, although some of the ideas are tough and he didn't always give me an "aha" moment, is generally pretty good at explaining. He gives important Kantian/idealism/romantic background to each of Hegel's ideas and generally gives a very short prompt when ideas already explained are referenced later on. I didn't find myself lost at any point, even when I couldn't wrap my head around a few of the most difficult ideas.
The ideas themselves are fascinating and presented in a way that I was interested even when I thought they were total bollocks. Hegel's ideas about the perfect state are kind of amusing, but also interesting in the ways they prefigure social democrat policies. His dialectic and unity/identity/unity-in-identity path are surprisingly compelling.
The ideas themselves are fascinating and presented in a way that I was interested even when I thought they were total bollocks. Hegel's ideas about the perfect state are kind of amusing, but also interesting in the ways they prefigure social democrat policies. His dialectic and unity/identity/unity-in-identity path are surprisingly compelling.
September 24, 2021
This dense but concise introduction manages to provide a total outline of Hegel's philosophical system in an accurate way which places him in the context of his time and his influences without falling into the common trap of oversimplification or glossing over Hegel's metaphysics. If you're looking for an introduction to the interconnected organ that is Absolute Idealism, this is probably your best bet to prepare yourself for reading Hegel's primary texts.
December 26, 2021
Outstanding, for two reasons in particular. First, where Hegel is opaque, Beiser is transparent. Second, Beiser overturns many myths and misunderstandings about Hegel, whether from old (or new) academic philosophers or Marxists. Highly recommended.
September 3, 2019
"In many ways [The Spirit of Christianity and Its Fate] is the birthplace of Hegel's mature philosophy. It is here that Hegel first formulates, if only in nuce, his idea of spirit, his concept of dialectic, his theme of reconciliation, and his organic vision of the world" (pp. 12-13).
"We can formulate the highest good of Hegel and the young romantic generation in a single phrase, one they would often use and constantly imply: unity of life (Einheit des Lebens). The highest good, the end of life, consists in achieving unity, wholeness or harmony in all aspects of our being. This unity holds on three levels: with oneself, with others, and with nature. The main threat to such unity consists in division (Entzweiung) or alienation (Entfremdung)" (p. 37).
"If Hegel abjured metaphysics as a science of the transcendent, he still pursued it as a science of the immanent. ... For Hegel, the problem with traditional metaphysics is not that it attempted to know the infinite, but that it had a *false interpretation* of the infinite as something transcending the finite world of ordinary experience" (p. 55).
"Hegel identifies the idea not with Plato's archetype but with Aristotle's formal-final cause. Hegel saw Aristotle, not Plato, as the proper founder of absolute idealism" (p. 66).
"Such was Hegel's Aristotelian transformation of Spinoza's monism: the single universal substance now becomes the single absolute idea, the formal-final cause of all things" (p. 67).
"Ironically, Leibniz, the arch-dogmatist whom Kant had only recently interred, was resurrected [in the 1790s] as the father of Naturphilosophie" (p. 87).
"No philosophical beginning could look worse than to begin with a definition, as Spinoza does" (Hegel, Differenzschrift [1801], quoted p. 91).
"For Hegel, Schelling's theory of the fall [in his 1804 Philosophy and Religion] was simply an admission of failure, a recognition of the breakdown of the philosophy of identity. Hegel's solution to this dilemma was nothing less than his organic vision of the world. If the absolute were to be conceived as life, then it *must* include finitude and difference within itself for the simple reason that organic development consists in self-differentiation" (p. 94). It's worth noting that Schelling's resolution of the problem in 1809 isn't so different in form than this.
"for Hegel, there was no choice but to transform Spinoza's substance into a living organism, since by this means alone is it possible to escape the snares of the ancient problem of the origin of finitude" (p. 95).
"Ultimately ... the spirit of Hegel's mature philosophy was nothing more than a rationalization and institutionalization of that love he had once celebrated in his Frankfurt years" (p. 123).
"We can formulate the highest good of Hegel and the young romantic generation in a single phrase, one they would often use and constantly imply: unity of life (Einheit des Lebens). The highest good, the end of life, consists in achieving unity, wholeness or harmony in all aspects of our being. This unity holds on three levels: with oneself, with others, and with nature. The main threat to such unity consists in division (Entzweiung) or alienation (Entfremdung)" (p. 37).
"If Hegel abjured metaphysics as a science of the transcendent, he still pursued it as a science of the immanent. ... For Hegel, the problem with traditional metaphysics is not that it attempted to know the infinite, but that it had a *false interpretation* of the infinite as something transcending the finite world of ordinary experience" (p. 55).
"Hegel identifies the idea not with Plato's archetype but with Aristotle's formal-final cause. Hegel saw Aristotle, not Plato, as the proper founder of absolute idealism" (p. 66).
"Such was Hegel's Aristotelian transformation of Spinoza's monism: the single universal substance now becomes the single absolute idea, the formal-final cause of all things" (p. 67).
"Ironically, Leibniz, the arch-dogmatist whom Kant had only recently interred, was resurrected [in the 1790s] as the father of Naturphilosophie" (p. 87).
"No philosophical beginning could look worse than to begin with a definition, as Spinoza does" (Hegel, Differenzschrift [1801], quoted p. 91).
"For Hegel, Schelling's theory of the fall [in his 1804 Philosophy and Religion] was simply an admission of failure, a recognition of the breakdown of the philosophy of identity. Hegel's solution to this dilemma was nothing less than his organic vision of the world. If the absolute were to be conceived as life, then it *must* include finitude and difference within itself for the simple reason that organic development consists in self-differentiation" (p. 94). It's worth noting that Schelling's resolution of the problem in 1809 isn't so different in form than this.
"for Hegel, there was no choice but to transform Spinoza's substance into a living organism, since by this means alone is it possible to escape the snares of the ancient problem of the origin of finitude" (p. 95).
"Ultimately ... the spirit of Hegel's mature philosophy was nothing more than a rationalization and institutionalization of that love he had once celebrated in his Frankfurt years" (p. 123).
November 10, 2024
Pros:
-It is easier to read than other books about Hegel, but that doesn't make it easy.
-Explain all the topics of Hegel's philosophy, most of them with enough depth for the size.
-Some of the mind blowing arguments are explained very well.
Cons:
-It's not a book for a beginner in philosophy, but the best book for a beginner in Hegel's philosophy.
It is not the first book about Hegel that I have read; it's the first time I have understood Hegel's way of thinking. It's essential to read the first five chapters in sequence because Beiser unfolded the system of Hegel, part by part. In the end, everything is connected. If you don't have a perfect memory, you will need to go back and re-read some parts so you can make sense of how they are connected. It will help to take notes. Still, I understood 80%-90% of what is in the book.
I highly recommend it and am happy to have this book in my library!
-It is easier to read than other books about Hegel, but that doesn't make it easy.
-Explain all the topics of Hegel's philosophy, most of them with enough depth for the size.
-Some of the mind blowing arguments are explained very well.
Cons:
-It's not a book for a beginner in philosophy, but the best book for a beginner in Hegel's philosophy.
It is not the first book about Hegel that I have read; it's the first time I have understood Hegel's way of thinking. It's essential to read the first five chapters in sequence because Beiser unfolded the system of Hegel, part by part. In the end, everything is connected. If you don't have a perfect memory, you will need to go back and re-read some parts so you can make sense of how they are connected. It will help to take notes. Still, I understood 80%-90% of what is in the book.
I highly recommend it and am happy to have this book in my library!
February 4, 2019
همنوایی فشردگی و جامعیت که شاید خصوصیتِ اساسیِ خود منظومهی هگلی شامل روششناسی، هستیشناسی و معرفتشناسیِ او، هم باشد، در اینجا به خوبی به استخدام بایزر درآمده و شاید بتوان آن را ذیل مفهومی اساسی در ژارگونِ هگلی توصیف کرد: چندسویهنگری یا همان عدمِ یکسویهنگری.تصویری که به دست داده شده به نظر تصویر جامعی از نوعی فلسفهی ایدئالیستیِ بخصوص است اما اینکه این تصویرِ جامع تا چه حد بر فلسفهی ایدئالیستیِ هگل منطبق باشد، خود نیازمندِ بررسیهای جداگانه است. در این میان با وجود آنکه کار بایزر از برخی خصوصیات روش دیالکتیک هگلی( که احتمالن مهمترینش همان چندسویهنگری باشد) بهره میبرد، اما شاید به معنای دقیق کلمه نتوان آن را اثری دیالکتیکی ( لااقل از جنبهی روششناسانه) که برای رسیدن به جامعیت، در روندی همواره پویا از مراحل رفعشده به مراحل بالاتر گذر میکند، دانست.
October 26, 2025
D'une partie, ce livre n'est pas du tout une introduction à la pensée de Hegel; c'est absolument nécessaire de le connaître un peu, et aussi Kant, pour pouver suivre l'argument. D'autre partie, ceci excelle dans la contéxtualisation: on trouve du sens au projet hégelien, qui n'apparaitra non plus comme un système au-delà de son époque mais qui appartient entièrement à celle-ci. En fait, c'est Hegel lui-même qui présente sa philosophie comme celle répresentante d'une époque et qui, en fait, va marquer la fin du rationalisme. Toutefois, il y a beaucoup de concepts qui ne sont présents ici, plutôt une œuvre générale que du détail et, donc, on le fini en ayant une idée abstraite, pas precise, sur Hegel. De toute façon, il faut valorer l'éffort.
October 8, 2023
Totality, unity, individuality.
"We are aware of the infinite, held Hegel, only through the exipirience of love, where we feel our oneness with others, and all living things.
Freedom consist in the capacity of abstracting oneself from the determined situation one is in. Of becoming aware of oneself as an independent unity and totality. This self though, can only be realized through the others but without loosing its indiviality but expading it.
Hegel's Theodecy: The only kind of Evil that ther is, consists the negation of the Self. But this Evil cannot be radical evil because it is part of the spiritual development of the self and therefore necessary.
"We are aware of the infinite, held Hegel, only through the exipirience of love, where we feel our oneness with others, and all living things.
Freedom consist in the capacity of abstracting oneself from the determined situation one is in. Of becoming aware of oneself as an independent unity and totality. This self though, can only be realized through the others but without loosing its indiviality but expading it.
Hegel's Theodecy: The only kind of Evil that ther is, consists the negation of the Self. But this Evil cannot be radical evil because it is part of the spiritual development of the self and therefore necessary.
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