BackContentsNext

HEGEL, h6'ge1, GEORG WILHELM FRIEDRICH: German philosopher; b. at Stuttgart Aug. 27, 1770; d. in Berlin Nov. 14, 1831. He studied Life. philosophy and theology at Tübingen 1788-93, and lived as a private tutor, first at Bern 1793-96, then at Frankfort 1797-1801. In 1801 he settled at Jena as lecturer on philosophy in the university, and Schelling's coeditor of the Kritisches Journal der Philosophie. He was at that time fully agreed with Schelling; and their journal, of which he wrote the larger part, was the organ of the system of identity--a philosophy which attempted to represent matter and mind, nature and spirit, world and God, as identical. However, this alliance did not last long, and after Schelling's departure for Würzburg in 1803 it turned into philosophical antagonism. After the battle of Jena (1806), Hegel removed to Bamberg, where for some time he edited the Bamberger Zeitung. From 1808 to 1816 he was rector of the Aegidien gymnasium at Nuremberg. In the latter year he was appointed professor of philosophy at Heidelberg; and in 1818 he was called to Fichte's chair at the University of Berlin. It was here that he made himself the dominant figure in the philosophical world, and established the school of philosophy known as Hegelianism. By his defense of exiting political institutions he attained to great political influence in Prussia.

Philosophy.

The impression which Hegel made in Germany was at one time almost overpowering. His philosophy swept away all other philosophies, and before he died it began to make itself felt as an actual power both in State and Church. However, four years after his death a controversy was raised among his followers by Strauss's Leben Jesu (Tübingen, 1835), and further embittered by Strauss's Christliche Glattbenslehre (1840), with the result that the Hegelian school was divided into three groups, called the right, the left, and the center. The adherents of the right (G. A. Gabler, H. T. W. Hinrichs, K. T. Goschel) represented supernaturalism; those of the left (Strauss,

201

Ludwig Feuerbach, Bruno Bauer) naturalism; while those of the center (J. K. Rosenkranz, J. E. Erdman, W. Vatke) represented a mediating tendency. The basis of the division was the ambiguity in Hegel's philosophy, and the apparent contradiction between his personal religious belief and his system of pantheism (see Pantheism, § 7; and Idealism, II., § 16). Hegel's pantheism (he avoided the word) was idealistic; and he called his philosophy .the system of the Absolute Idea. Since existence is rational, logic becomes metaphysics; and his philosophy is, therefore, a system of logic interpreted ontologically. He employs the dialectic method, and proceeds from thesis through antithesis to synthesis, from the positive through the negative to the absolute. The intuitional knowledge of the absolute spirit is at the same time the highest form of truth and the highest form of existence.

Religion Hegel defines as truth, but in the lowest form in which truth can be held by the human mind.

In Christianity this form of truth has Religious found its highest, its absolute expres-

Views. sion, having passed through the stages of one-sided objectivity and one-sided subjectivity in the ante-Christian religions. On the first stage God is considered an object, a part of nature, a natural being (Lamaism, Buddhism, Brah manism); on the second he is considered as subject, wholly distinguished from nature (Judaism, Greek and Roman polytheism); but only in Christianity does he become true spirit. The Hegelian idea, how ever, of God as spirit, is somewhat ambiguous (for instance, with respect to the question of person ality); and the specially Christian question, whether the appearance of Christ in the history of mankind is a natural event to be explained like any other event, or whether it is a miracle, the divine incarnation by which creation is saved, is left unanswered. Both views have been developed from Hegelian premises; and the great boast of Hegel's earliest pupils, that in his philosophy faith and science had become fully reconciled, proved empty as soon as the actual application began. It is a very characteristic circumstance that his Philosophy of Religion was edited by Marheineke as evidence of the author's conservative orthodoxy, and then by Bruno Bauer as proof of his revolutionary radicalism.

In Germany, where Hegel's influence has long since waned, there are now few thinkers who could be called Hegelians. Perhaps the best Works late representatives of Hegelianism in and Germany are Kuno Fischer and Adolf

Influence. Lasson. It may be said that Hegel was first introduced to English readers by Hutchison Stirling, in Ids Secret of Hegel (London, 1865; 3d ed., 1898). Since then the number of English and American thinkers who follow Hegel more or less closely has grown, until now the so-called neo-Hegelian school is practically dominant.

Hegel's principal works are: Die Pltdnnornenologie des Geistes (Bamberg, 1807; Eng. transl. by W. T. Harris, in Journal of Speculative Philosophy, vol. ii., 1868); Die Wissenschaft der Logik (2 vols. in 3, Nuremberg, 1812-16; Eng. transl. The Subjective Logic of Hegel, London, 1855; Eneyclopddie der

Refele Sesesippne philosophischen Wissenschaften (Heidelberg, 1817), which is the systematic presentation of Hegel's sys tem; Grundlinien der Philosophie des Reehts (Berlin, 1821; Eng. transl., Philosophy of Right, London, 1896); and his lectures included in his Werke (18 vols., Berlin, 1832-1840), from which have been translated Lectures on the Philosophy of History, (3 vols., London, 1895), Lectures on the History of Philosophy (3 vols., 1892-1896), and Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion (3 vols., 1895). From Hegel's Encyclopddie W. Wallace has translated Logic (Oxford, 1874; enlarged ed., 2 vols., 1892 1894) and Philosophy of Mind (1894). His literary remains are to be published by the Soci6tk des amis de 1'Universitk de Paris; vol. i., the Vie de Jesus, ed. P. Roques, appeared Jena, 1906, and his Theologische Jugendschriften, ed. H. Nohl, Tübingen, 1907.

Bibliography: K. Rosenkranz, G. W. F. Hegela Leben, Berlin, 1844; R. R. Ham Hegel und seine Zeit, Berlin, 1857; E. Caird, Hegel, Edinburgh, 1901. On Hegel's philosophy consult: K. P. Fischer, Speculative Characteristik and Kritik des hepeischen Systems, Erlangen, 1845; C. von Orelli, Spinoza's Leben and Lehre, nebat einem Abrias der . . . hegelachen Philosophie, Aarau, 1850; T. C. Sandars, Hegel's Philosophy of Right, London, 1855; A. Vdra, L'HEuglianiane et la philosophic, Paris, 1861; idem, Introduction d la philosophic de Hegel, ib. 1865; K. Rosenkranz, Hegel ala deutscher Nat onalphilosoph, Leipsic, 1870; W. Graham, Idealism, London, 1872 (relates Berkeley and Hegel); C. Herrmann, Hegel und die logische Frage der Philosophie in der Gegenwart, Leipsic, 1878; A. Beth, The Development from Kant to Hegel, London, 1882; idem, Hegelianiem and Personality, Edinburgh, 1893; J. s. Kedney, Hegel's ffsthetice, Chicago, 1885; G. s. Morris, Hegel's Philosophy of the State and of History, ib. 1887; P. Barth, Die Geschichtsphilosophie Hegela und der Hegelianer bie auf Marx and Hartmann, Leipsic, 1890; W. T. Harris, Hegel's Logic, Chicago, 1890; idem, Hegel's Doctrine of Reftection, New York, 1891; B. C. Burt, Hegel's Theory of Right, Duties and Religion, Ann Harbor, 1893; D. G. Ritchie, Darwin and Hegel, London, 1894; W. Wallace, Prolegomena to the Study of Hegel's Philosophy, Oxford, 1894; F. L. Luqueer, Hegel as Educator. New York, 1896; R. Eucken, in The Monist, vii (1897), 321-339; J. B. Baillie, Hegel's Logic, London, 1901; Kuno Fischer, Hegele Leben, Werke and Lahre, 2 vols., Heidelberg, 1901; J. E. MeTaggart, Studies in Hegelian Cosmology, Cambridge, 1901; J. G. Hibben, Hegel's Logic, New York, 1902; R. Mackintosh, Hegel and Hegelianism, Edinburgh, 1903; and the works on the history of modern philosophy. An excellent bibliography may be found in J. M. Baldwin, Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology, iii. 1, pp. 243-249.

BackContentsNext


CCEL home page
This document is from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library at
Calvin College. Last modified on 08/11/06. Contact the CCEL.
Calvin seal: My heart I offer you O Lord, promptly and sincerely