Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (German: [ˈɡeɔɐ̯k ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈfʁiːdʁɪç ˈheːɡəl]; August 27, 1770 – November 14, 1831) was aGerman philosopher, and a major figure in German Idealism. His historicist and idealist account of realityrevolutionized European philosophy and was an important precursor to Continental philosophy and Marxism. SONY Vaio PCG-K315S laptop keyboard

Hegel developed a comprehensive philosophical framework, or "system", of Absolute idealism to account in an integrated and developmental way for the relation of mind and nature, the subject and object of knowledge,psychology, the state, history, art, religion, and philosophy. TOSHIBA Satellite L755-S5216 laptop keyboard

In particular, he developed the concept that mind or spirit manifested itself in a set of contradictions and oppositions that it ultimately integrated and united, without eliminating either pole or reducing one to the other. Examples of such contradictions include those between nature and freedom, and between immanence and transcendence.  HP Pavilion DV6z artist edition 2 laptop keyboard

Hegel influenced writers of widely varying positions, including both his admirers (Strauss, Bauer, Feuerbach, T. H. Green, Baur, Marx, Engels, Vygotsky, F. H. Bradley, Dewey, Sartre, Croce, Dilthey, Gadamer, Küng, Kojève, Fukuyama,Žižek, Brandom, Iqbal) and his detractors (Schopenhauer, Herbart, Schelling, Kierkegaard, Stirner, Nietzsche, Peirce,James, Cioran, Popper, Russell, Heidegger, Deleuze).^[2]  HP Pavilion dv6-3142se laptop keyboard

 His influential conceptions are of speculative logic or "dialectic", "absolute idealism", "Spirit", negativity, sublation (Aufhebung in German), the "Master/Slave" dialectic, "ethical life" and the importance of history.

Hegel was born on August 27, 1770 in Stuttgart, in the Duchy of Württemberg in southwestern Germany. TOSHIBA Satellite P300-ST3712 laptop keyboard

Christened Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, he was known as Wilhelm to his close family. His father, Georg Ludwig, was Rentkammersekretär(secretary to the revenue office) at the court of Karl Eugen, Duke of Württemberg.^[3] Hegel's mother, Maria Magdalena Louisa (née Fromm), was the daughter of a lawyer at the High Court of Justice at the Württemberg court. HP G42-265LA laptop keyboard

She died of a "bilious fever" (Gallenfieber) when Hegel was thirteen. Hegel and his father also caught the disease but narrowly survived.^[4] Hegel had a sister, Christiane Luise (1773–1832), and a brother, Georg Ludwig (1776–1812), who was to perish as an officer in Napoleon's Russian campaign of 1812.^[5] SONY VAIO VGN-FS620 laptop keyboard

At age three Hegel went to the "German School". When he entered the "Latin School" aged five, he already knew the first declension, having been taught it by his mother.

In 1776 Hegel entered Stuttgart's Gymnasium Illustre. During his adolescence Hegel read voraciously, copying lengthy extracts in his diary. HP Pavilion dv3-2155mx laptop keyboard

Authors he read include the poet Klopstock and writers associated with the Enlightenment such as Christian Garve andGotthold Ephraim Lessing. Hegel's studies at the Gymnasium were concluded with his Abiturrede ("graduation speech") entitled "The abortive state of art and scholarship in Turkey." TOSHIBA PK130BH2A00 laptop keyboard

At the age of eighteen Hegel entered the Tübinger Stift (a Protestant seminary attached to the University of Tübingen), where two fellow students were to become vital to his development—his exact contemporary, the poet Friedrich Hölderlin, and the younger philosopher-to-be Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling. SONY VAIO VGN-CR123E laptop keyboard

Sharing a dislike for what they regarded as the restrictive environment of the Seminary, the three became close friends and mutually influenced each other's ideas. They watched the unfolding of the French Revolution with shared enthusiasm. Schelling and Hölderlin immersed themselves in theoretical debates on Kantian philosophy, from which Hegel remained aloof. Lenovo ThinkPad T510-4339 laptop keyboard

Hegel at this time envisaged his future as that of a Popularphilosoph, i.e., a "man of letters" who serves to make the abstruse ideas of philosophers accessible to a wider public; his own felt need to engage critically with the central ideas of Kantianism did not come until 1800.

Having received his theological certificate (Konsistorialexamen) from the Tübingen Seminary, HP Pavilion dv6-2130ca laptop keyboard

Hegel became Hofmeister (house tutor) to an aristocratic family inBern (1793–96). During this period he composed the text which has become known as the "Life of Jesus" and a book-length manuscript titled "The Positivity of the Christian Religion". His relations with his employers becoming strained, Packard Bell Easynote TK85 laptop keyboard

Hegel accepted an offer mediated by Hölderlin to take up a similar position with a wine merchant's family in Frankfurt, where he moved in 1797. Here Hölderlin exerted an important influence on Hegel's thought.^[6] While in Frankfurt Hegel composed the essay "Fragments on Religion and Love". DELL Inspiron 1750 Laptop Keyboard

In 1799 he wrote another essay entitled "The Spirit of Christianity and Its Fate", unpublished during his lifetime.

In 1801 Hegel came to Jena with the encouragement of his old friend Schelling, who held the position of Extraordinary Professor at the University there. HP Pavilion DV6z artist edition 2 Laptop Keyboard

Hegel secured a position at the University as a Privatdozent (unsalaried lecturer) after submitting a Habilitationsschrift (dissertation) on the orbits of the planets. Later in the year Hegel's first book, The Difference Between Fichte's and Schelling's Systems of Philosophy, appeared. He lectured on "Logic and Metaphysics" and, with Schelling, HP G42-364LA Laptop Keyboard

gave joint lectures on an "Introduction to the Idea and Limits of True Philosophy" and held a "Philosophical Disputorium". In 1802 Schelling and Hegel founded a journal, the Kritische Journal der Philosophie ("Critical Journal of Philosophy") to which they each contributed pieces until the collaboration was ended by Schelling's departure for Würzburg in 1803.  DELL Vostro PP37L Laptop Keyboard

In 1805 the University promoted Hegel to the position of Extraordinary Professor (unsalaried), after Hegel wrote a letter to the poet and minister of cultureJohann Wolfgang von Goethe protesting at the promotion of his philosophical adversary Jakob Friedrich Fries ahead of him.^[7] SONY VAIO VGN-C2S Series Laptop Keyboard

Hegel attempted to enlist the help of the poet and translator Johann Heinrich Voß to obtain a post at the newly renascent University of Heidelberg, but failed; to his chagrin, Fries was later in the same year made Ordinary Professor (salaried) there.

His finances drying up quickly, Hegel was now under great pressure to deliver his book, HP pavilion DV7-1000 Laptop Keyboard

the long-promised introduction to his System. Hegel was putting the finishing touches to this book, the Phenomenology of Spirit, as Napoleon engaged Prussian troops on October 14, 1806, in the Battle of Jena on a plateau outside the city. On the day before the battle, Napoleon entered the city of Jena. Hegel recounted his impressions in a letter to his friend Friedrich Immanuel Niethammer: HP G42-364LA Laptop Keyboard

I saw the Emperor – this world-soul – riding out of the city on reconnaissance. It is indeed a wonderful sensation to see such an individual, who, concentrated here at a single point, astride a horse, reaches out over the world and masters it . . . this extraordinary man, whom it is impossible not to admire.  TOSHIBA 9J.N7482.901 Laptop Keyboard

Although Napoleon chose not to close down Jena as he had other universities, the city was devastated and students deserted the university in droves, making Hegel's financial prospects even worse. The following February Hegel's landlady Christiana Burkhardt (who had been abandoned by her husband) gave birth to their son Georg Ludwig Friedrich Fischer (1807–31).^[10] TOSHIBA Satellite U305-S2804 Laptop Keyboard

In March 1807, aged 37, Hegel moved to Bamberg, where Niethammer had declined and passed on to Hegel an offer to become editor of a newspaper, the Bamberger Zeitung. Hegel, unable to find more suitable employment, reluctantly accepted. Ludwig Fischer and his mother (whom Hegel may have offered to marry following the death of her husband) stayed behind in Jena.^[11] HP 597635-001 Laptop Keyboard

He was then, in November 1808, again through Niethammer, appointed headmaster of a Gymnasium in Nuremberg, a post he held until 1816. While in Nuremberg Hegel adapted his recently published Phenomenology of Spirit for use in the classroom. Part of his remit being to teach a class called "Introduction to Knowledge of the Universal Coherence of the Sciences",Compaq Presario CQ57 Series Laptop Keyboard

Hegel developed the idea of an encyclopedia of the philosophical sciences, falling into three parts (logic, philosophy of nature, and philosophy of spirit).^[12]

Hegel married Marie Helena Susanna von Tucher (1791–1855), the eldest daughter of a Senator, in 1811. DELL Vostro 1014 Laptop Keyboard

This period saw the publication of his second major work, the Science of Logic (Wissenschaft der Logik; 3 vols., 1812, 1813, 1816), and the birth of his two legitimate sons, Karl Friedrich Wilhelm (1813–1901) and Immanuel Thomas Christian (1814–1891).

Having received offers of a post from the Universities of Erlangen, Berlin, and Heidelberg, Lenovo 3000 N200 Laptop Keyboard

Hegel chose Heidelberg, where he moved in 1816. Soon after, in April 1817, his illegitimate son Ludwig Fischer (now ten years old) joined the Hegel household, having thus far spent his childhood in an orphanage.^[13] (Ludwig's mother had died in the meantime.)^[14]

Hegel published The Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences in Outline (1817) as a summary of his philosophy for students attending his lectures at Heidelberg.  HP Pavilion zv6223ea Laptop Keyboard

In 1818 Hegel accepted the renewed offer of the chair of philosophy at the University of Berlin, which had remained vacant since Fichte's death in 1814. Here he published his Philosophy of Right (1821). Hegel devoted himself primarily to delivering his lectures; his lecture courses on aesthetics, the philosophy of religion,  Lenovo Thinkpad T520 Laptop Keyboard

the philosophy of history, and the history of philosophy were published posthumously from lecture notes taken by his students. His fame spread and his lectures attracted students from all over Germany and beyond.

Hegel was appointed Rector of the University in 1830, when he was 60. He was deeply disturbed by the riots for reform in Berlin in that year. ACER Aspire 4736Z laptop keyboard

In 1831 Frederick William III decorated him for his service to the Prussian state. In August 1831 acholera epidemic reached Berlin and Hegel left the city, taking up lodgings in Kreuzberg. Now in a weak state of health, Hegel seldom went out. As the new semester began in October, Hegel returned to Berlin, with the (mistaken) impression that the epidemic had largely subsided.  HP Pavilion DV7t-3100 laptop keyboard

By November 14 Hegel was dead. The physicians pronounced the cause of death as cholera, but it is likely he died from a different gastrointestinal disease.^[15] He is said to have uttered the last words "And he didn't understand me" before expiring.^[16] In accordance with his wishes, Hegel was buried on November 16 in the Dorotheenstadt cemetery next to Fichte andSolger. HP Pavilion dv6-2150es laptop keyboard

Hegel's son Ludwig Fischer had died shortly before while serving with the Dutch army in Batavia; the news of his death never reached his father.^[17] Early the following year Hegel's sister Christiane committed suicide by drowning. Hegel's remaining two sons - Karl, who became a historian, and Immanuel, who followed a theological path - lived long and safeguarded their father's Nachlaß and produced editions of his works. HP Pavilion dv6-3107ax laptop keyboard

Hegel's thinking can be understood as a constructive development within the broad tradition that includes Plato and Kant. To this list one could add Proclus,Meister Eckhart, Leibniz, Plotinus, Jakob Boehme, and Rousseau. What all these thinkers share, which distinguishes them from materialists like Epicurus,  SONY VAIO VGN-FS415E laptop keyboard

theStoics, and Thomas Hobbes, and from empiricists like David Hume, is that they regard freedom or self-determination both as real and as having importantontological implications, for soul or mind or divinity. This focus on freedom is what generates Plato's notion (in the Phaedo, Republic, and Timaeus) of thesoul as having a higher or fuller kind of reality than inanimate objects possess. HP Pavilion DV7-3165dx laptop keyboard

While Aristotle criticizes Plato's "Forms", he preserves Plato's cornerstones of the ontological implications for self-determination: ethical reasoning, the soul's pinnacle in the hierarchy of nature, the order of the cosmos, and an assumption with reasoned arguments for a prime mover. SONY VAIO VGN-NW25GF laptop keyboard

Kant imports Plato's high esteem of individual sovereignty to his considerations of moral and noumenal freedom, as well as to God. All three find common ground on the unique position of humans in the scheme of things, known by the discussed categorical differences from animals and inanimate objects. Compaq Presario CQ71-317EA laptop keyboard

In his discussion of "Spirit" in his Encyclopedia, Hegel praises Aristotle's On the Soul as "by far the most admirable, perhaps even the sole, work of philosophical value on this topic".^[18] In his Phenomenology of Spirit and his Science of Logic, Hegel's concern with Kantian topics such as freedom and morality, and with their ontological implications, is pervasive. HP Pavilion dv6-2129ev laptop keyboard

Rather than simply rejecting Kant's dualism of freedom versus nature, Hegel aims to subsume it within "true infinity", the "Concept" (or "Notion": Begriff), "Spirit", and "ethical life" in such a way that the Kantian duality is rendered intelligible, rather than remaining a brute "given." FUJITSU Lifebook P1610 laptop keyboard

The reason why this subsumption takes place in a series of concepts is that Hegel's method, in his Science of Logic and his Encyclopedia, is to begin with basic concepts like Being and Nothing, and to develop these through a long sequence of elaborations, including those already mentioned. In this manner,  Packard Bell NEW90 laptop keyboard

a solution that is reached, in principle, in the account of "true infinity" in the Science of Logic's chapter on "Quality", is repeated in new guises at later stages, all the way to "Spirit" and "ethical life", in the third volume of the Encyclopedia.

In this way, Hegel intends to defend the germ of truth in Kantian dualism against reductive or eliminative programs like those of materialism and empiricism. SONY VAIO VGN-FS640/W laptop keyboard

Like Plato, with his dualism of soul versus bodily appetites, Kant pursues the mind's ability to question its felt inclinations or appetites and to come up with a standard of "duty" (or, in Plato's case, "good") which transcends bodily restrictiveness. Hegel preserves this essential Platonic and Kantian concern in the form of infinity going beyond the finite (a process that Hegel in fact relates to "freedom" and the "ought"^[19]),  HP 405963-001 laptop keyboard

the universal going beyond the particular (in the Concept), and Spirit going beyond Nature. And Hegel renders these dualities intelligible by (ultimately) his argument in the "Quality" chapter of the "Science of Logic." The finite has to become infinite in order to achieve reality. The idea of the absolute excludes multiplicity so the subjective and objective must achieve synthesis to become whole.  HP Pavilion G6-1223TX Laptop Keyboard

This is because, as Hegel suggests by his introduction of the concept of "reality",^[20] what determines itself—rather than depending on its relations to other things for its essential character—is more fully "real" (following the Latin etymology of "real": more "thing-like") than what does not. Finite things don't determine themselves, because, as "finite" things, SONY VAIO VGN-FS315M Laptop Keyboard

their essential character is determined by their boundaries, over against other finite things. So, in order to become "real", they must go beyond their finitude ("finitude is only as a transcending of itself"^[21]).

The result of this argument is that finite and infinite—and, by extension, particular and universal, TOSHIBA Satellite C650-182 Laptop Keyboard

nature and freedom—don't face one another as two independent realities, but instead the latter (in each case) is the self-transcending of the former.^[22] Rather than stress the distinct singularity of each factor that complements and conflicts with others—without explanation—the relationship between finite and infinite (and particular and universal, and nature and freedom) becomes intelligible as a progressively developing and self-perfecting whole. ASUS F3M Laptop Keyboard

The obscure writings of Jakob Böhme had a strong effect on Hegel. Böhme had written that the Fall of Man was a necessary stage in the evolution of the universe. This evolution was, itself, the result of God's desire for complete self-awareness. Hegel was fascinated by the works of Kant, Rousseau, and Goethe, and by theFrench Revolution. Lenovo 63Y0047 Laptop Keyboard

Modern philosophy, culture, and society seemed to Hegel fraught with contradictions and tensions, such as those between the subject and object of knowledge, mind and nature, self and Other, freedom and authority, knowledge and faith, the Enlightenment and Romanticism.  HP Pavilion dv6-3107ax Laptop Keyboard

Hegel's main philosophical project was to take these contradictions and tensions and interpret them as part of a comprehensive, evolving, rational unity that, in different contexts, he called "the absolute idea" or "absolute knowledge".

According to Hegel, the main characteristic of this unity was that it evolved through and manifested itself in contradiction and negation. SONY VAIO VGN-C2S Series Laptop Keyboard

Contradiction and negation have a dynamic quality that at every point in each domain of reality—consciousness, history, philosophy, art, nature, society—leads to further development until a rational unity is reached that preserves the contradictions as phases and sub-parts by lifting them up (Aufhebung) to a higher unity. This whole is mental because it is mind that can comprehend all of these phases and sub-parts as steps in its own process of comprehension. HP 488590-001 Laptop Keyboard

It is rational because the same, underlying, logical, developmental order underlies every domain of reality and is ultimately the order of self-conscious rational thought, although only in the later stages of development does it come to full self-consciousness. The rational, self-conscious whole is not a thing or being that lies outside of other existing things or minds. TOSHIBA P000482730 Laptop Keyboard

Rather, it comes to completion only in the philosophical comprehension of individual existing human minds who, through their own understanding, bring this developmental process to an understanding of itself. Hegel's thought is revolutionary to the extent that it is a philosophy of absolute negation: as long as absolute negation is at the center, systematization remains open, and makes it possible for human beings to became subjects.^[23]  SONY 147977821 Laptop Keyboard

"Mind" and "Spirit" are the common English translations of Hegel's use of the German "Geist". Some^[who?] have argued that either of these terms overly "psychologize" Hegel,^{[citation needed]} implying a kind of disembodied, solipsistic consciousness like ghost or "soul." Geist combines the meaning of spirit—as in god, ghost or mind—with an intentional force. TOSHIBA Tecra M9-S5514 Laptop Keyboard

In Hegel's early philosophy of nature (draft manuscripts written during his time at the University of Jena), Hegel's notion of "Geist" was tightly bound to the notion of "Aether" from which Hegel also derived the concepts of space and time; however in his later works (after Jena) Hegel did not explicitly use his old notion of "Aether" any more.^[24]  GATEWAY NV-54 Laptop Keyboard

Central to Hegel's conception of knowledge and mind (and therefore also of reality) was the notion of identity in difference, that is that mind externalizesitself in various forms and objects that stand outside of it or opposed to it, and that, through recognizing itself in them, is "with itself" in these external manifestations, FUJITSU Lifebook P1510 Laptop Keyboard

so that they are at one and the same time mind and other-than-mind. This notion of identity in difference, which is intimately bound up with his conception of contradiction and negativity, is a principal feature differentiating Hegel's thought from that of other philosophers.  FUJITSU Lifebook P1610 Laptop Keyboard

Hegel made the distinction between civil society and state in his Elements of the Philosophy of Right.^[25] In this work, civil society (Hegel used the term "bürgerliche Gesellschaft" though it is now referred to as Zivilgesellschaft in German to emphasize a more inclusive community) was a stage in the dialectical relationship that occurs between Hegel's perceived opposites,  DELL Precision M4500 Laptop Keyboard

the macro-community of the state and the micro-community of the family.^[26] Broadly speaking, the term was split, like Hegel's followers, to the political left and right. On the left, it became the foundation for Karl Marx's civil society as an economic base;^[27] to the right, it became a description for all non-state aspects of society, including culture, society and politics.^[28]  SONY VAIO VGN-N325QE/W Laptop Keyboard

This liberal distinction between political society and civil society was followed by Alexis de Tocqueville.^[27] In fact, Hegel's distinctions as to what he meant by civil society are often unclear. For example, while it seems to be the case that he felt that a civil-society such as the German society in which he lived was an inevitable movement of the dialectic,  TOSHIBA Satellite A205-S4618 Laptop Keyboard

he made way for the crushing of other types of "lesser" and not fully realized types of civil society, as these societies were not fully conscious or aware, as it were, as to the lack of progress in their societies. Thus, it was perfectly legitimate in the eyes of Hegel for a conqueror, such as Napoleon, to come along and destroy that which was not fully realized. SONY VGN-FE21H laptop keyboard

The meaning of the term civil society is contested. It is sometimes considered to include the family and the private sphere, and referred to as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business.^[1] Dictionary.com's 21st Century Lexicon defines civil society as 1) the aggregate of non-governmental organizations and institutions that manifest interests and will of citizens or 2)  HP G72-b60SF laptop keyboard

individuals and organizations in a society which are independent of the government.^[2] Sometimes the term is used in the more general sense of "the elements such as freedom of speech, an independent judiciary, etc, that make up a democratic society" (Collins English Dictionary).^[3] HP Mini 110-3180sv laptop keyboard

The term entered public discourse in the United States and around the world in the 1990s in effect of intensive work of communist propaganda in Poland.^[4][5] However its tradition is much richer and longstanding.

Volunteering is often considered a defining characteristic of the organizations that constitute civil society, which in turn are often called NGOs, or NPOs. LENOVO IdeaPad S10 20015 laptop keyboard

Most authorities have in mind the realm of public participation in voluntary associations, trade unions and the like,^[6] but it is not necessary to belong to all of these to be a part of civil society.

The literature on relations between civil society and democratic political society have their roots in early classical liberal writings like those of Alexis de Tocqueville.^[5] HP Mini 110-3180sv laptop keyboard

 However they were developed in significant ways by 20th century theorists like Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba, who identified the role of political culture in a democratic order as vital.^[7]

They argued that the political element of political organizations facilitates better awareness and a more informed citizenry, who make better voting choices, participate in politics, and hold government more accountable as a result.^[8] Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E125 laptop keyboard

The statutes of these organizations have often been considered micro-constitutions because they accustom participants to the formalities of democratic decision making.

More recently, Robert D. Putnam has argued that even non-political organizations in civil society are vital for democracy. HP Pavilion dv6-3230us laptop keyboard

This is because they build social capital, trust and shared values, which are transferred into the political sphere and help to hold society together, facilitating an understanding of the interconnectedness of society and interests within it.^[9]

Others, however, have questioned how democratic civil society actually is. ACER K052030A1 laptop keyboard

Some have noted that the civil society actors have now obtained a remarkable amount of political power without anyone directly electing or appointing them.^[10][11] It has also been argued that civil society is biased towards the global north.^[12]Partha Chatterjee has argued that, in most of the world, "civil society is demographically limited."^[13]  DELL Inspiron 6400 Laptop Keyboard

For Jai Sen civil society is a neo-colonial project driven by global elites in their own interests.^[14] Finally, other scholars have argued that, since the concept of civil society is closely related to democracy and representation, it should in turn be linked with ideas of nationality and nationalism.^[15] TOSHIBA NSK-TAJ01 Laptop Keyboard

Latest analyses show that civil society is a neoliberal ideology legitimizing antidemocratic attack of economic elites on institutions of the welfare state through development of third sector as its substitute.

Constitutional economics is a field of economics and constitutionalism which describes and analyzesACER Aspire 7741G Laptop Keyboard

the specific interrelationships between constitutional issues and functioning of the economy including budget process. The term “constitutional economics” was used by American economist – James M. Buchanan – as a name for a new academic sub-discipline that in 1986 brought him the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his “development of the contractual and constitutional bases for the theory of economic and political decision-making.” ACER Aspire 7741G Laptop Keyboard

Buchanan rejects “any organic conception of the state as superior in wisdom, to the individuals who are its members.” Buchanan believes that a constitution, intended for use by at least several generations of citizens, must be able to adjust itself for pragmatic economic decisions and to balance interests of the state and society against those of individuals and their constitutional rights to personal freedom and private happiness.^[17] SONY KFRMBA152B Laptop Keyboard