For my final project in Introduction to Philosophy, I decided to write a very brief and concise biography of the life Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. I chose to do G.W.F Hegel because I do not know very much about him, other than what we had covered in class, but I have heard he had lead a very interesting life. In my project, I will be covering his life, in a biographical style.
Born on August 27th in 1770 in the city of Stuttgart, Germany, G.W.F Hagel was the eldest of three siblings. By age three Hegel began his education in “German School”, but only after two years he entered “Latin School” he already knew the first declension of Latin, since he was taught by his mother. By the age of six, Hegel entered Stuttgart’s Gymnasium Illustre and he ended his education there, all before the age of eighteen as well, with a speech titled “The abortive state of art and scholarship in Turkey”. Throughout his childhood Hegel was a zealous reader, and often copied passages from his favorite writers in his diary.
When Hegel turned eighteen, he entered Tübinger Stift which was a protestant seminary. While he was there he met two people who would be influential in his life, Friedrich Holderlin and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling. The three of them became close friends, bonding over their distaste of the strictness of the seminary. All three were fans of Hellenic Civilization and when the French Revolution broke out, all watched with eagerness. While Holderlin and Schelling held debates over Kantian philosophies, Hegel remained out of them and decided to work on a future of aPopularphilosoph, or a philosopher who shared ideas through writing to reach a wider audience. He eventually decided to engage in Kantian debates around 1800. Hegel eventually received his Konsistorialexamen, or his theological degree. He soon then gained work as a home tutor in the city of Bern. Over his three years working as a home tutor, he compiled work that would eventually make up his work “The Life of Jesus” and a book long essay entitled “The Positivity of the Christian Religion”. Eventually he and his employer had disagreements and Hegel then moved to Frankfurt, Germany to continue work as a home tutor. In Frankfurt, Germany Hegel composed his works “Fragments on Religion and Love”, “The Spirit of Christianity and Its Fate”, written in 1799 and which was unpublished during his lifetime. In 1797 he also published an un-authored book titled “The Oldest Systematic Program of German Idealism”. Though it is written in Hegel’s handwriting, the manuscript is thought to have actually been the work of Hegel, Schelling, Holderlin, and possibly by all three.
Michael Prowse makes Hegel a lot more accessible, writing in "Prospect":
ReplyDeleteTo the degree that we are thinking beings, Hegel says, we have to consider ourselves as part of a larger whole and not as neatly individuated। He calls this mental whole Geist, or Spirit, and tries to work out the rules by which it develops through time... Hegel didn't regard Geist as something that stands apart from, or above, human individuals. He saw it rather as the forms of thought that are realised in human minds... What Hegel does better than most philosophers is explain how individuals are linked together and why it is important to commit oneself to the pursuit of the general or common good."