georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegelquotes

1770 - 1831

Painting of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich HegelGerman philosopher George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) was learning Latin declensions by age three, and enrolled in Latin school at five. His love of knowledge was instilled from the earliest age. Known for his attempt to synthesize opposites, like spirit and nature, to understand the whole, Hegel was an Absolute Idealist with a strong Christian faith.

His philosophies were influenced by Immanuel Kant, Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, and all the Greek philosophers. He has even been called the “Aristotle of modern times.” Hegel proposed a new form of thinking called “speculative reason”, and was the first philosopher to seriously regard the history of society as essential for understanding the individual.

The University of Jena hired him as an unsalaried professor where he worked for many years, and wrote extensively. Later, he accepted paid teaching positions at both the University of Heidelberg and the University of Berlin. A school of Hegelianism eventually formed, but since Hegel’s ideas are experiential and not strict methods of set principles, philosophers of all types have been able to draw inspiration from his works over the years, whether atheist or believer, conservative or liberal.

There are four main books Hegel produced in his life (Phenomenology of Mind, Science of Logic, Elements of the Philosophy of Right, and Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences) that clarify his dialectical system for finding a place for everything be it history, ethics, politics, or religion. Many of his other essays and works were compiled by students’ lecture notes, and published after his death from cholera in 1831.

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