1 - Introducing Hegelian idealism

Summary

For all his formidable difficulty as a philosopher, Hegel was also a committed teacher concerned to introduce his students to philosophy no matter what their level of expertise. Hegel was for a time a teacher at Nürnberg Gymnasium, presenting high-school students with a simplified outline of his philosophical system (see his Philosophical Propaedeutic). In this chapter I attempt to do something similar, though less formidable, namely to present a very brief introduction to important themes in some of Hegel's most famous works. I begin with an overview of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, focusing on his account of the “dialectical experience of consciousness”, and providing a brief explication of his famous master/slave dialectic. I then turn to a very schematic account of the basic idea of Hegelian logic: the analysis of the systems of basic categories of thought that structure our experience of the world. Some important aspects of Hegel's philosophy of history are then explored, including the influential idea of an “end of history”. I also present some key elements of Hegel's political philosophy, his account of the conditions necessary for the exercise of modern freedom. In conclusion, I look briefly at so-called British idealism, an important turn-of-the-century movement that generated the strong anti-idealist turn – particularly with Moore and Russell – that paved the way for the emergence of analytic philosophy.

From consciousness to spirit: Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit

Legend has it that Hegel was hastily completing the final pages of his manuscript just as the first cannon-shots rang out announcing the battle of Jena in 1806.