Continental Symposium

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Hegel is most well known for his work on metaphysics, but his work expands well beyond that. He developed absolute idealism; he developed a kind of ‘Hegelian dialectic;’ and he argued for a dialectical interpretation of history.

Although his seminal work is The Phenomenology of Spirit, it is notoriously hard to read. It works just fine as a starting point, but Lectures on the History of Philosophy and World History and Science of Logic are also good places to start.

Works:

The Phenomenology of Spirit (1807) - The most foundational text in Hegel’s idealism. It examines the evolution of consciousness through the dialectical method.

Science of Logic (1812) - An analysis of the dialectical method, which is comprised by a process of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis, that challenges and builds upon traditional logic.

Philosophy of Nature (1817) - Hegel’s dialectal system applied to nature.

Elements of Philosophy of Right (1821) - Hegel’s perspective on ethics, including law and politics.

Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion (1832) - Hegel’s dialectical reinterpretation of Christianity.

The Philosophy of Fine Art (1835 / Posthumous) - An argument that art is driven by and expresses the absolute spirit.

Philosophy of Mind (1870 / Posthumous) - A deeper look at the processes of the mind in the terms of the dialectical method.

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