Hegel
A Biography

A complete account of his life and an overview of the philosophical concepts in Hegel's work.

Terry Pinkard (Author)

9780521003872, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 18 June 2001

812 pages, 15 b/w illus.
22.8 x 15.3 x 4.2 cm, 1.08 kg

'… monumental book, written by a fine American Hegel scholar … all students of Hegel and of Hegelian idealism should welcome this work …' Journal of Ecclesiastical History

One of the founders of modern philosophical thought Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) has gained the reputation of being one of the most abstruse and impenetrable of thinkers. This major biography of Hegel offers not only a complete account of the life, but also a perspicuous overview of the key philosophical concepts in Hegel's work in a style that will be accessible to professionals and non-professionals alike. Terry Pinkard situates Hegel firmly in the historical context of his times. The story of that life is of an ambitious, powerful thinker living in a period of great tumult dominated by the figure of Napoleon. The Hegel who emerges from this account is a complex, fascinating figure of European modernity, who offers us a still compelling examination of that new world born out of the political, industrial, social, and scientific revolutions of his period.

Preface
Acknowledgements
Notes on the text
1. Hegel's formation in Old Württemberg
2. The Protestant seminary in Tübingen
3. From Berne to Frankfurt to Jena: failed projects and fresh starts
4. Texts and drafts: Hegel's path to the Phenomenology from Frankfurt to Jena
5. The Phenomenology of Spirit: Hegel finds his voice
6. Life in transition: from Jena to Bamberg
7. Nuremberg respectability
8. From the Phenomenology to the 'System': Hegel's Logic
9. Heidelberg: coming into focus
10. Berlin: reform and repression at the focal point (1818–1821)
11. Hegel's Philosophy of Right: freedom, history, and the modern European state
12. Consolidation: Berlin, Brussels, Vienna (1821–1824)
13. Assertion: Berlin, Paris (1824–1827)
14. Thinking through modern life: nature, religion, art, and the absolute
15. Home: 1827–1831
Notes
Chronology of Hegel's life
Hegel's works cited
Works cited
Index.

Subject Areas: History of Western philosophy [HPC]