Hegel was not a modest man. He claimed that he understood all of the philosophy and history. Like Spinoza, he thought that god and the universe were inseparable. it is difficult to describe Hegel’s philosophy simply, because it isn’t simple. It is a huge, all-embracing system that moves through history like a giant snowball, gathering the best from every era, forever expanding human knowledge. Eventually it will arrive at the absolute truth – God. Hegel disagreed with Kant, who said it was beyond human reason to understand God. He said: “All knowledge is human knowledge.”
The basis of Hegel’s system is a continuing process of argument, which goes on and on until it arrives at the ultimate revelation. He saw history as humanity’s path to self discovery, and he singled out “world spirits”, such as Julius Caesar, who brought in each new era. He said that world leaders like him change the course of history.
Hegel was born in Stuttgart. at this time, Germany was a loose collection of states, which were run on the feudal system of serf and masters. When Hegel was 36 and a professor, Napoleon conquered Germany. He finished his first major work on the day that Napoleon took over the city. Hegel saw him as the new “world spirit”, even though the university was closed and had to work on a newspaper for a year. He worked for a pro-Napoleon newspaper.
Hegel’s plodding style earned him the title “the old man” — even as a young one. His lectures could never be described as scintillating. Nevertheless his reputation spread far and wide, and many came to listen to him. they were happy to suffer his lumbering, humourless delivery just to be able to bathe in his genus. But Hegel wasn’t a stuffed shirt with the ladies. In fact, He was thrown out of his lodgings for dallying with his landlord’s wife. In his forties he settled down with a wife half his age. they had two children and lived happily until Hegel fell ill with cholera. He died aged 61 at the height of his fame.
Hegel’s controversial affairs was not ended with the one he had with his landlord’s wife. His fellow philosopher, Von Schelling, accused Hegel of pinching his ideas. This ended their long friendship, which began when they were students. However, Hegel’s philosophy spawned many groups of followers, even years after his death. Karl Marx adopted some of Hegel’s ideas as a basis for a new political system known as Marxism.
In 1789 the starving lower classes in France rose up against the aristocracy, sending shock waves through Europe. Hegel welcomed this as a new age of freedom. He planted a “liberty tree” to celebrate the French Revolution.
