Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy

Cambridge Studies in the History and Theory of Politics

by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

There are various aspects under which the History of Philosophy may possess interest. We shall find the central point of this interest in the essential connection existing between what is apparently past and the present stage reached by Philosophy. That this connection is not one of the external considerations which may be taken into account in the history of Philosophy, but really expresses its inner character: that the events of this history, while they perpetuate themselves in their effects like all other events, yet produce their results in a special way—this it is which is here to be more clearly expounded. What the history of Philosophy shows us is a succession of noble minds, a gallery of heroes of thought, who, by the power of Reason, have penetrated into the being of things, of nature and of spirit, into the Being of God, and have won for us by their labours the highest treasure, the treasure of reasoned knowledge. The events and actions of this history are therefore such that personality and individual character do not enter to any large degree into its content and matter. In this respect the history of Philosophy contrasts with political history, in which the individual, according to the peculiarity of his disposition, talents, affections, the strength or weakness of his character, and in general, according to that through which he is this individual, is the subject of actions and events. In Philosophy, the less deserts and merits are accorded to the particular individual, the better is the history; and the more it deals with thought as free, with the universal character of man as man, the more this thought, which is devoid of special characteristic, is itself shown to be the producing subject. The acts of thought appear at first to be a matter of history, and, therefore, things of the past, and outside our real existence. But in reality we are what we are through history: or, more accurately, as in the history of Thought, what has passed away is only one side, so in the present, what we have as a permanent possession is essentially bound up with our place in history. The possession of self-conscious reason, which belongs to us of the present world, did not arise suddenly, nor did it grow only from the soil of the present. This possession must be regarded as previously present, as an inheritance, and as the result of labour—the labour of all past generations of men. Just as the arts of outward life, the accumulated skill and invention, the customs and arrangements of social and political life, are the result of the thought, care, and needs, of the want and the misery, of the ingenuity, the plans and achievements of those who preceded us in history, so, likewise, in science, and specially in Philosophy, do we owe what we are to the tradition which, as Herder has put it, like a holy chain, runs through all that was transient, and has therefore passed away. Thus has been preserved and transmitted to us what antiquity produced.

Genres: Philosophy, History, Nonfiction, 19th Century, Classics

1590 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1833

About the author

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) was a German philosopher and one of the founding figures of German Idealism. Influenced by Kant's transcendental idealism and Rousseau's politics, Hegel formulated an elaborate system of historical development of ethics, government, and religion through the dialectical unfolding of the Absolute. Hegel was one of the most well-known historicist philosopher, and his thought presaged continental philosophy, including postmodernism. His system was inverted into a materialist ideology by Karl Marx, originally a member of the Young Hegelian faction.

Reviews

[Nikos Tsentemeidis]

Ένας άθλος. Δε θα το σύστηνα για πολλούς λόγους. Θεωρώ πως δεν έχει να προσφέρει κάτι ουσιαστικό, άλλωστε ο λόγος του είναι στριφνός και δυσνόητος. Αρκετά κουραστικός με τις 1200 σελίδες, πόσα ποια να πει κανείς για την ιστορία της φιλοσοφίας έως τις αρχές του 19ου αιώνα;

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

This could be quite interesting at times and astonishingly prescient in others; however, this is not anything like his written works of speculative philosophy. My understanding is that this book is more widely read amongst the non-initiated (haven’t enunciated their fidelity to communism) as it is far more straight forward and direct with its statements and sums up much of his philosophy quite succinctly or, I would say, too succinctly. When he gets really direct about the traversal of “spirit” through history it starts sounding ridiculous and, in my humble opinion, somewhat deviant from what he evinces in Phenomenology of Spirit. This is what is quite beautiful about speculative philosophy: the writer may not themselves even be aware of what can be elicited for the particular subject reading the work. The first time reading the Science of Logic much of the chapters on syllogism were read with the French -> Haitian revolutions in mind. The second time around, I not only recognized that I was wrong - though it still worked - I was also able to apply the history of the three internationals to the syllogistic process he “reveals” and it still worked (a history that took place 50 - 100 years after the Science of Logic). This element is quite lost in this work and it must be remembered that this was a compilation of lectures and not a written piece.

Either way, when he correctly predicts North America’s rise to world historical people after the (at the time) material conditions of free real estate came to an end, I was pumped. His description of China was interesting and, though this was 1820, it sounded a lot like how China is described today. But the biggest take away was the difference between the European countries that adopted the Protestant principle as compared to maintaining the Catholic one. If we look at the Catholic/Orthodox countries of Europe (and even their ex-colonies) well into the 20th century, and even today, we find peasant agriculture still in functional existence i.e. France (this is why farmers markets and seasonal produce is the norm there), Spain, Italy, Greece, Ukraine, Russia etcetera and then in the Protestant countries we find no remnants of peasantry and large scale, industrial agriculture in its stead and a fully industrialized/proletarianized society very early on i.e. Germany, England, Denmark, the Netherlands, etcetera. The thing to take away from this (or atleast I did) is that ideals evidently hold material conditions within them as a result of their realization or objectivity. Though religion seems separate to the economy, clearly it is not. And obviously the Protestant ethos is the capitalist ethos but it is interesting to see the developmental stagnation of those countries that remained loyal to the original Churches. The way a country is constituted in turn constitutes the subject as well as their material conditions (the mode of production). Within the imperial core, when a subject first radicalizes, in youth most often, their only solution for themselves is to radically break themselves from the state and… buy a farm and live off the land! Quite like the peasants and/or the Yeoman fantasy the country and constitution itself was founded on - our most radical fantasies can’t even think beyond the original “American Dream” that sustained the constitution even though this vision was completely impossible without slave labor.

[Hussam Nabil · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is Hegel at his worst but it still deserves 5 stars.
I've been a Hegel worshipper since the first time I read him.
Hegel like any other human being is a product of his cultural context which I happen to know fairly well about, but as a brilliant philosopher, he was -through systematic thinking, unwavering commitment, and sheer genius- able to transcend in his speculative philosophy.
The problem with practical philosophy is that it puts our limitations as human beings at the forefront, it makes very obvious how our context dictates the possibilities we are capable of perceiving.
In those lectures, I believe that Hegel took Imperialism and Eurocentrism to their theoretical zenith, dismissing every Non-European model of Government and Social organisation as not belonging to History.
This also shows Hegel as one of the "Kinder der Aufklärung", believing that there could only be one set of moral values which is rational and therefore acceptable.

[Beansism · Rating 5 out of 5]

The sheer size of this book and the reputation of the author can make it intimidating to start, but for the reader wishing to have a full grasp of Hegelianism, the content inside is the best you could ask for. Not a dry history of books and separated systems by any means, Hegel attempts to draw a line through the entire Western canon of philosophy that culminates in his own system, much like Phenomenology of Spirit. Unlike Phenomenology of Spirit, however, these lectures are much easier to comprehend, and should be seen as a companion to Phenomenology. Throughout the entirety of this book, Hegel ties the development of Spirit to the specific systems and thoughts of the previous thinkers before him, pairing it with an elucidation of these philosophies and biographical info. Easily the most important set (or sets?) of lectures Hegel gave, he spares no important detail. Even for those who disagree with his thought, the thorough, at times esoteric, reading of important philosophers would bring anyone a higher understanding of them.

[Jacob · Rating 2 out of 5]

I may lean more Hegelian than Kantian but I did not enjoy reading him. We read the majority of the second draft for my philosophy class. The dialectic is an incredible thing and very useful for thinking about history as a process and the relational aspect of all things. The world spirit, spirit actualizing through the individual, and the culmination in the state as freedom and necessity is all quite silly and a bit ridiculous in my opinion. I know these lectures are more didactic than the Phenomenology and maybe even vulgarize Hegel's nuanced philosophy but I also think people love the Phenomenology because nobody can make any sense of it and they can read whatever they want into the text. Hegel explicitly lays out what he is proposing in these lectures and its all a bit over the top and so abstract that there seems to be little connection to reality when you step back and think about the whole system.

[Sinan Öner]

Hegel's "Lectures on the Philosophy of World History" is one of the most important philosophy books which produce the philosophical thoughts from World History. Hegel's lectures were for his Students. But Hegel writes his lectures for all his readers from the different nations. Hegel thought about World History since Ancient Ages to the Modern. How can we produce philosophies from World History? Hegel's methodology, Hegel's understanding of History, Hegel's logic, Hegel's ways of producing philosophies, Hegel's seeing the Humanity, we can read in his "Lectures on the Philosophy of World History".

[Andrew Noselli · Rating 3 out of 5]

If only I had read this in high school !

[Leonardo]

Hegel había percibido algo similar: “América es...la tierra del futuro, y su importancia histórica mundial será revelada recién en el tiempo por llegar...Es una tierra de deseo para todos aquellos que están cansados del arsenal histórico de la vieja Europa”.

Imperio Pág.278

[Victoria]

Surprisingly readable.

[Bezaubernd]

Es geht vernünftig zu. Mit diesem Glauben an den Weltgeist müssen wir an die Geschichte und insbesondere an die Geschichte der Philosophie gehen.

[Andrew Davis]

a step down in incomprehensibility from hegel's non-lecture based writing; now merely baffling