Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Hegel

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, (1770-1831) was a German philosopher, born in Stuttgart; educated in theology at University of Tübingen. Taught at Univ. of Jena, 1801-16, where he worked out his philosophical system; professor at Univ. of Heidelberg 1816-18; then professor at Berlin. Hegel was the last of the four great German idealist-philosophers of that period, the others being Kant, Fichte, and Schelling. Hegel's system is a culmination of the idealistic philosophy of Kant. To Hegel, the world is a world of reason, reason being the essential nature of reality. It is philosophy's task to set forth this rationality in a systematic, comprehensive way. His system has three main divisions: the logic; the philosophy of nature; the philosophy of spirit, or mind. Hegel's first important treatise, the Phenomenology of Mind appeared in 1807. His Science of Logic, 1808 analyzes and develops the conceptions underlying the various forms of experience by a 'dialectical method.' Other works include the Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences and the Philosophy of Right. Most of his works are available in English translations. His theories have had a profound influence on German philosophy and also on British and American thought.