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HEGEL: LECTURES ON THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 1825-6 VOL 1 HEGEL
Hegel's lectures have had as great a historical impact as the works he himself published. Important elements of his system are elaborated only in the lectures, especially those given in Berlin during the last decade of his life. The original editors conflated materials from different sources and dates, obscuring the development and logic of Hegel's thought. The Hegel Lectures series is based on a selection of extant and recently discovered transcripts and manuscripts. The original lecture series are reconstructed so that the structure of Hegel's argument can be followed. Each volume presents an accurate new translation accompanied by an editorial introduction and annotations on the text, which make possible the identification of Hegel's many allusions and sources.
This new edition of Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy sets forth clearly, for the first time for the English reader, what Hegel actually said. These lectures challenged the antiquarianism of Hegel's contemporaries by boldly contending that the history of philosophy is itself philosophy, not just history. It portrays the journey of reason or spirit through time, as reason or spirit comes in stages to its full development and self-conscious existence, through the successive products of human intellect and activity. These lectures proved to be extremely influential on the intellectual history of the past two centuries. They are crucial to understanding Hegel's own systematic philosophy in its constructive aspect, as well as his views on the centrality of reason in human history and culture. Volume I holds additional importance because, as well as setting out Hegel's discussion of the history of Chinese and Indian philosophy, it presents the interesting and significant changes that Hegel made to the stage-setting introduction to these lectures across the years from 1819 to 1831. This edition adapts the considerable editorial resources of the German edition that it translates, to the needs of the general reader as well as the serious scholar, so as to constitute an unparalleled resource on this topic in the English language.
This new edition of Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy sets forth clearly, for the first time for the English reader, what Hegel actually said. These lectures challenged the antiquarianism of Hegel's contemporaries by boldly contending that the history of philosophy is itself philosophy, not just history. It portrays the journey of reason or spirit through time, as reason or spirit comes in stages to its full development and self-conscious existence, through the successive products of human intellect and activity. These lectures proved to be extremely influential on the intellectual history of the past two centuries. They are crucial to understanding Hegel's own systematic philosophy in its constructive aspect, as well as his views on the centrality of reason in human history and culture. Volume I holds additional importance because, as well as setting out Hegel's discussion of the history of Chinese and Indian philosophy, it presents the interesting and significant changes that Hegel made to the stage-setting introduction to these lectures across the years from 1819 to 1831. This edition adapts the considerable editorial resources of the German edition that it translates, to the needs of the general reader as well as the serious scholar, so as to constitute an unparalleled resource on this topic in the English language.
- GenresPhilosophy
340 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2009
About the author
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
2,294 books2,725 followersGeorg 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.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 11, 2024
THE FIRST OF THREE VOLUMES IN THIS SERIES
BySteven H ProppTOP 100 REVIEWERon February 3, 2017
Format: Paperback
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) was a German Idealist philosopher, who was very influential on later Philosophy of History, Philosophy of Religion, and even Existentialism [e.g., Sartre's Being and Nothingness]. [NOTE: page numbers below refer to the 487-page reprint paperback edition.]
The Translator’s Note points out, “the greater part of the book is put together from the notes of different courses of lectures delivered on the subject at various times. Hegel… lectured in all nine times on the History of Philosophy… between the years [1805] and 1830. He had begun the tenth course on the subject in 1831 when death cut his labors short. It was only for the first course of lectures… that Hegel fully wrote out his lectures; this was evidently done with the intention of future publication in book form… In the later courses Hegel trusted to extempore speaking, but at the same time made considerable use of the above writings, the margins of which he annotated with subsequent additions.”
Frederick Beiser’s Introduction points out, “Hegel regarded the final system, whose development is the end of the history of philosophy, as HIS OWN. Toward the close of his lectures on modern philosophy he did not hesitate to suggest that his system is the result of all the labors of the spirit in the past 2,500 years. Through it the spirit had finally come to its self-awareness, and so it had reached its end.” (Pg. xix)
In Hegel’s on Introduction, he states, “the study of the history of Philosophy is an introduction to Philosophy itself… this history… shows how the content, or that which appears to belong to mere history, really belongs to the science of Philosophy. The history of Philosophy is itself scientific, and thus essentially becomes the science of Philosophy.” (Pg. 4, 6) Later, he adds, “Thus we see that Philosophy is system in development; the history of Philosophy is the same; and this is the main point to be noted and the first principle to be dealt with in this treatise on that history.” (Pg. 29)
He says, “The temple of self-conscious reason is to be considered … alone worthy of the history of Philosophy… The great assumption that what has taken place on this side, in the world, has also done so in conformity with reason---which is what first gives the history of Philosophy its true interest---is nothing else than trust in Providence, only in another form.” (Pg. 35)
He asserts, “But Mythology must remain excluded from our history of Philosophy. The reason of this is found in the fact that in Philosophy we have to do not with theorems generally… but with thoughts which are explicit… The theorems which are [implicitly] contained within Religion do not concern us; they must be in the form of thoughts, since Thought alone is the absolute form of the Idea.” (Pg. 83)
He notes in passing, “Just as the freemasons have symbols which are esteemed for their depth of wisdom… that which is hidden very easily seems to men deep, or as if depth were concealed beneath. But when it is hidden, it may possibly prove to be the case that there is nothing behind. This is so in freemasonry, in which everything is concealed to those outside and also to many people within, and where nothing remarkable is possessed in learning or in science, and least of all in Philosophy.” (Pg. 89)
He outlines, “the history of Philosophy falls into three periods—that of the Greek Philosophy, the Philosophy of the Middle Ages and the modern Philosophy. Of these the first is speaking generally, regulated by Thought, the second falls into the opposition between existence and formal reflection, but the third has the Notion as its ground.” (Pg. 109)
He says of Confucius, “He is hence only a man who has a certain amount of practical and worldly wisdom---one with whom there is no speculative philosophy. We may conclude from his original works that for their reputation it would have been better had they never been translated.” (Pg. 121)
He observes, “As regards the external and historical condition of Greece at this time, Greek philosophy commences in the sixth century before Christ in the time of Cyrus, and in the period of decline in the Ionian republics in Asia Minor. Just because this world of beauty which raised itself into a higher kind of culture went to pieces, Philosophy arose.” (Pg. 155)
He again outlines, “we shall again make three divisions: 1. The first extends from Thales to Anaxagoras, from abstract thought which is in immediate determinateness to the thought of self-determining Thought… 2. The second division comprises the Sophists, Socrates, and the followers of Socrates… 3. The third division, which deals with Plato and Aristotle, is found in Greek science where objective thought, the Idea, forms itself into a whole.” (Pg. 165) Of the first period, he notes, “On the whole, philosophical utterances and Notions are still poor, and it was in Zeno that Philosophy first attained to a purer conception of itself.” (Pg. 241) He adds, “Zeno’s dialectic of matter has not been refuted to the present day; even now we have not got beyond it, and the matter is left in uncertainty.” (Pg. 265)
He says of a quote from Heraclitus, “Great and important words! We cannot speak of truth in a truer or less prejudiced way. Consciousness as consciousness of the universal, is alone consciousness of truth; but consciousness of individuality and action as individual, an originality which becomes a singularity of content or of form, is the untrue and bad.” (Pg. 296)
Of the second period, he states, “we have two questions to deal with, which are---how the determination of what is in and for itself is to be comprehended, and how this is likewise in immediate relation to the ‘I’ as thinking. It comes to pass in Philosophy that although this ‘I’ is the positing, yet the posited content of that which is thought is the object existent in and for itself. If one were to remain at saying that the ‘I’ is that which posits, that would be the false idealism of modern times: in earlier times men did not remain at saying that what is thought is bad because I posit it.” (Pg. 351)
He notes, “we have to comprehend Socrates and his manifestation. In the universal consciousness, in the spirit of the people to which he belongs, we see natural turn into reflective morality, as he stands above as the consciousness of this change.” (Pg. 407)
He observes, “That the universal should in Philosophy be given a place of such importance that only the universal can be expressed, and the ‘this’ which is meant, cannot, indicates a state of consciousness and thought which the philosophic culture of our time has not yet reached.” (Pg. 466)
He concludes this volume, “true freedom does not consist in flying from enjoyment and the occupations which have as their concern other men and other ends in life; but in the fact that consciousness, though involved in all reality, stands above it and is free from it.” (Pg. 481)
While this series will hardly serve as a “history of philosophy” for the modern student, it is of great interest to serious students to Hegel, and is interesting to see how he viewed his philosophical predecessors.
BySteven H ProppTOP 100 REVIEWERon February 3, 2017
Format: Paperback
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) was a German Idealist philosopher, who was very influential on later Philosophy of History, Philosophy of Religion, and even Existentialism [e.g., Sartre's Being and Nothingness]. [NOTE: page numbers below refer to the 487-page reprint paperback edition.]
The Translator’s Note points out, “the greater part of the book is put together from the notes of different courses of lectures delivered on the subject at various times. Hegel… lectured in all nine times on the History of Philosophy… between the years [1805] and 1830. He had begun the tenth course on the subject in 1831 when death cut his labors short. It was only for the first course of lectures… that Hegel fully wrote out his lectures; this was evidently done with the intention of future publication in book form… In the later courses Hegel trusted to extempore speaking, but at the same time made considerable use of the above writings, the margins of which he annotated with subsequent additions.”
Frederick Beiser’s Introduction points out, “Hegel regarded the final system, whose development is the end of the history of philosophy, as HIS OWN. Toward the close of his lectures on modern philosophy he did not hesitate to suggest that his system is the result of all the labors of the spirit in the past 2,500 years. Through it the spirit had finally come to its self-awareness, and so it had reached its end.” (Pg. xix)
In Hegel’s on Introduction, he states, “the study of the history of Philosophy is an introduction to Philosophy itself… this history… shows how the content, or that which appears to belong to mere history, really belongs to the science of Philosophy. The history of Philosophy is itself scientific, and thus essentially becomes the science of Philosophy.” (Pg. 4, 6) Later, he adds, “Thus we see that Philosophy is system in development; the history of Philosophy is the same; and this is the main point to be noted and the first principle to be dealt with in this treatise on that history.” (Pg. 29)
He says, “The temple of self-conscious reason is to be considered … alone worthy of the history of Philosophy… The great assumption that what has taken place on this side, in the world, has also done so in conformity with reason---which is what first gives the history of Philosophy its true interest---is nothing else than trust in Providence, only in another form.” (Pg. 35)
He asserts, “But Mythology must remain excluded from our history of Philosophy. The reason of this is found in the fact that in Philosophy we have to do not with theorems generally… but with thoughts which are explicit… The theorems which are [implicitly] contained within Religion do not concern us; they must be in the form of thoughts, since Thought alone is the absolute form of the Idea.” (Pg. 83)
He notes in passing, “Just as the freemasons have symbols which are esteemed for their depth of wisdom… that which is hidden very easily seems to men deep, or as if depth were concealed beneath. But when it is hidden, it may possibly prove to be the case that there is nothing behind. This is so in freemasonry, in which everything is concealed to those outside and also to many people within, and where nothing remarkable is possessed in learning or in science, and least of all in Philosophy.” (Pg. 89)
He outlines, “the history of Philosophy falls into three periods—that of the Greek Philosophy, the Philosophy of the Middle Ages and the modern Philosophy. Of these the first is speaking generally, regulated by Thought, the second falls into the opposition between existence and formal reflection, but the third has the Notion as its ground.” (Pg. 109)
He says of Confucius, “He is hence only a man who has a certain amount of practical and worldly wisdom---one with whom there is no speculative philosophy. We may conclude from his original works that for their reputation it would have been better had they never been translated.” (Pg. 121)
He observes, “As regards the external and historical condition of Greece at this time, Greek philosophy commences in the sixth century before Christ in the time of Cyrus, and in the period of decline in the Ionian republics in Asia Minor. Just because this world of beauty which raised itself into a higher kind of culture went to pieces, Philosophy arose.” (Pg. 155)
He again outlines, “we shall again make three divisions: 1. The first extends from Thales to Anaxagoras, from abstract thought which is in immediate determinateness to the thought of self-determining Thought… 2. The second division comprises the Sophists, Socrates, and the followers of Socrates… 3. The third division, which deals with Plato and Aristotle, is found in Greek science where objective thought, the Idea, forms itself into a whole.” (Pg. 165) Of the first period, he notes, “On the whole, philosophical utterances and Notions are still poor, and it was in Zeno that Philosophy first attained to a purer conception of itself.” (Pg. 241) He adds, “Zeno’s dialectic of matter has not been refuted to the present day; even now we have not got beyond it, and the matter is left in uncertainty.” (Pg. 265)
He says of a quote from Heraclitus, “Great and important words! We cannot speak of truth in a truer or less prejudiced way. Consciousness as consciousness of the universal, is alone consciousness of truth; but consciousness of individuality and action as individual, an originality which becomes a singularity of content or of form, is the untrue and bad.” (Pg. 296)
Of the second period, he states, “we have two questions to deal with, which are---how the determination of what is in and for itself is to be comprehended, and how this is likewise in immediate relation to the ‘I’ as thinking. It comes to pass in Philosophy that although this ‘I’ is the positing, yet the posited content of that which is thought is the object existent in and for itself. If one were to remain at saying that the ‘I’ is that which posits, that would be the false idealism of modern times: in earlier times men did not remain at saying that what is thought is bad because I posit it.” (Pg. 351)
He notes, “we have to comprehend Socrates and his manifestation. In the universal consciousness, in the spirit of the people to which he belongs, we see natural turn into reflective morality, as he stands above as the consciousness of this change.” (Pg. 407)
He observes, “That the universal should in Philosophy be given a place of such importance that only the universal can be expressed, and the ‘this’ which is meant, cannot, indicates a state of consciousness and thought which the philosophic culture of our time has not yet reached.” (Pg. 466)
He concludes this volume, “true freedom does not consist in flying from enjoyment and the occupations which have as their concern other men and other ends in life; but in the fact that consciousness, though involved in all reality, stands above it and is free from it.” (Pg. 481)
While this series will hardly serve as a “history of philosophy” for the modern student, it is of great interest to serious students to Hegel, and is interesting to see how he viewed his philosophical predecessors.
May 24, 2022
Hegel is fully of shit. Philosophy and religion have nothing in common.
June 27, 2024
Read this mostly for the introduction. Good starting place for Hegel, but his treatment of Chinese and Indian philosophy is rather dismissive.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews