Hegel: The Philosopher of Freedom

by Klaus Vieweg, Sophia Kottman (Translator), Paul A. Kottman (Translator)

A monumental new biography of a pivotal yet poorly understood pioneer in modern philosophy. When a painter once told Goethe that he wanted to paint the most celebrated man of the age, Goethe directed him to Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel worked from the To philosophize is to learn to live freely. While he was slow and cautious in the development of his philosophy, his intellectual growth was like an odyssey of the mind, and, contrary to popular belief, his life was full of twists and turns, suspense and even danger. In this landmark biography, the philosopher Klaus Vieweg paints a new picture of the life and work of the most important representative of German idealism. His vivid portrait provides readers an intimate account of Hegel's times and the milieu in which he developed his thought, along with detailed, clear-sighted analyses of Hegel's four major works. What results is a new interpretation of Hegel through the lens of reason and freedom. Vieweg draws on extensive archival research that has brought to light a wealth of hitherto undiscovered documents and handwritten notes relating to Hegel's work, touching on Hegel's engagement with the leading thinkers and writers of his Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hölderlin, and others. Combatting clichés and misunderstandings about Hegel, Vieweg also offers a sustained defense of the philosopher's more progressive impulses. Highly praised upon its release in Germany as having set the new biographical standard, this monumental work emphasizes Hegel's relevance for today, depicting him as a vital figure in the history of philosophy.

Genres: Philosophy, Biography, History, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir

488 pages, Hardcover

Published December 12, 2023

About the author

Klaus Vieweg, at the Frankfurt Book Fair, is a German philosopher and professor of classical German philosophy at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena and one of Hegel's leading international experts. He lives in Jena

Reviews

[E H · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best biography of Hegel bar none.

Vieweg paints Hegel as a ‘philosopher of freedom’ by showing both how Hegel interacted with the philosophies of his time and also concretely what all Hegel did socially and politically to earn him this name. The narrative puts a central focus on the concept of freedom and the many ways Hegel sought to bring his conception of it about; from questions of logic, metaphysics, politics, aesthetics etc. Vieweg shows the unity of Hegels system with his conception of freedom. The fact that freedom gets such an important point in this book makes a very compelling argument about the importance of this incredibly misunderstood thinker.

Contrasting it with other works, ie. Pinkard, Vieweg’s book offers some very up close and concrete insights into Hegel’s circle of intellectuals in the many places he lived in throughout his life who all shaped his Philosophy into what it would eventually become.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as much biographical detail as Pinkard's biography, and Vieweg is as close to writing hagiography as probably any Hegel biographer since Rosenkranz. Every sentence of Hegel's is interpreted as a strike of dissent against German repression in favor of French-style revolutionary freedom. Vieweg backs this up with frequent evidence, but doesn't elaborate on it. We are told, for example, that Hegel helped to deliver a letter to Sieyes during his college years, but we are given no context as to Hegel's actual involvement. Every notice of the Prussian secret police is taken to be truthful, that the very well-known paranoia of the Prussian government wasn't just paranoia, but had actually singled out Hegel as the philosopher of German republicanism. A lot of good emphasis on the Logic, whereas Pinkard emphasizes the Phenomenology

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hoped that this would clarify Hegel's thinking, but sadly not