George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel In 1770 A.D. an inspiring German idealist philosopher, who became one of the most influential thinkers of the 19th century. Hegel was born in Stuttgart on August 27, 1770, the son of a revenue officer with the civil service. He was brought up in an atmosphere of Protestant Pietism and became thoroughly acquainted with the Greek and Roman classics while studying at the Stuttgart gymnasium. Encouraged by his father to become a clergyman, Hegel entered the seminary at the University of Tübingen in 1788. There he developed friendships with the poet Friedrich Hölderlin and the philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling. Having completed a course of study in philosophy and theology and having decided not to enter the ministry, Hegel became a private tutor in Berne, Switzerland. In 1797, he assumed a similar position in Frankfurt. Two years later his father died, leaving a financial legacy that was sufficient to free him from tutoring.

In 1801, Hegel went to the University of Jena, where he studied, wrote, and eventually became a lecturer. At Jena, he completed The Phenomenology of Mind, one of his most important works. He remained at Jena until October 1806, when the city was taken by the French and he was forced to flee. Having spent the entire legacy left to him by his father, Hegel became editor of the Bamberger Zeitung in Bavaria. However, he disliked journalism, and moved to Nuremberg, where he served for eight years as headmaster of a Gymnasium. During the Nuremberg years Hegel met and married Marie von Tucher. Three children were born to the Hegels, a daughter, who died soon after birth, and two sons, Karl and Immanuel. While at Nuremberg, Hegel published over a period of several years The Science of Logic. In 1816, Hegel accepted a professorship in philosophy at the University of Heidelberg. Soon after, he published a summary of a systematic statement of his entire philosophy entitled Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences in Outline. In 1818, Hegel was invited to teach at the University of Berlin, where he was to remain. He died in Berlin on November 14, 1831, during a cholera epidemic.

After Hegel's death there was a great clash of intellectuals which the Hegelian theologian David Strauss called the clash between "the Left Hegelians and the Right Hegelians." The Left Hegelians were atheists, led b...

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... how Marx's theories were based upon some of the opinions expressed by Hegel.

Hegel considered the State a symbol the Absolute Truth. He held that the State should be worshipped as the will of God. Furthermore, he suggested that the ideal form of government was a constitutional monarchy. While placing limits upon the monarch, thereby preventing a tyranny, it allows a single person to act for the good of the State. A constitution codifies the will of the people and the rights of the individual. By melding the "I" and the "We" into a common set of principals, the constitution represents the Absolute Mind -- as close to Absolute Truth as humans can be. The monarch is limited to actions in accord with divine logic, Hegel concluded.

To be brief and to the point, I think Georg Hegel was a very intelligent man, but a hypocrite. From my research, it seems he just keeps changing his opinions or beliefs on things.

It just bothered me, to read about how he thought about it this way then years later he changes it, very troubling.

Works Cited

1. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hegel/#Conc

2. http://www.hegel.org/

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