Hegel's Idea of Philosophy: With a New Translation of Hegel's Introduction to the History of Philosophy

by Quentin Lauer, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

In his Introduction to the History of Philosophy , Hegel undertook to say what philosophy is; that it can be said to have a history. He treated philosophy as an organic unity, a process, to which philosophers down through the ages have made contributions. Thus in Hegel's view, the history of philosophy is inseparable from doing philosophy, and philosophy can be done only historically. Hegel engaged in a critique both of "philosophies" and of the ways of treating philosophy's history. The author's analysis, combined with his translation of a version of the Introduction not previously available, makes intelligible a mode of philosophical thinking which is highly complex and which has had an extraordinarily formative influence on contemporary thought. The result is a treatment more readily understandable to the educated reader than would be Hegel's own technical vocabulary.

Genres: Philosophy

159 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

Reviews

[Beauregard Bottomley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is in two parts. The first half is an essay by the author, Quentin Lauer, S.J., the second is the translated notes of Hegel on his lecture notes for ‘History of Philosophy’ The Introduction. Wiki tells me that there is no other English Translation for the rest of the lecture. The ‘S.J.’ stands for Society of Jesuits. I had to look that up, and I’m glad I did because there was a religious bent in the essay that would have been surprising for me otherwise.

Hegel is the best place to start with philosophy since 'metaphysics ends with Hegel' (Heidegger will say that). Hegel focuses on the history of philosophy and shows how thought develops. When we think about nature we are no longer concerned with nature but we are focused on the thought about nature. There is a presumption of the being and the thought in the concept of the concrete thought. Freedom (spirit acting in itself and for itself, Hegel speak, and an approximation to what he's getting at) and what it really means is at the heart of all philosophy one way or another and Hegel is trying to get at what that means in this lecture (and in his other works).

Science with its justified true belief is probably not what you think it means. The translator, Lauer, used the word ‘cult’ in his translation when talking about beliefs. The beliefs we have are dependent on how we thought we thought about the world and the history of thought (philosophy) and its meaning will change. All thought about thought needs a context, a tradition and the culture in order to be understood. The cult (i.e. mythos) we live by shades our Absolute knowledge.

This is probably the easiest of Hegel’s work to follow, but that doesn't mean it's an easy read! Hegel will lapse in to Hegelese at times, and assumes a familiarity with Aristotelian philosophy, but he does make his points understandable within the lecture notes. People who say Hegel is rubbish (such as Ayn Rand) probably haven’t taken the time to read him properly. He’s got something worth saying and I think he’s worth the trouble, and even if you don’t agree with his conclusions (and, actually I don’t) one needs to understand what he was saying in order to understand what others are trying to say differently about being, freedom and the human experience.

The translated lecture notes are also easily available on the Marxist.org site.

[Dionysius the Areopagite · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part of the reason I still always stop into the Strand when I'm nearby is that I often find myself squirming in painful ways to conceal noxious gasses from exiting my body after having devoured something I know not how to pronounce but stove me into debt anyway out at the Dekalb Market. Thus, in turning amidst basement stands and miscellaneous paperclip debris to the soundtrack of rust-hewn cranial fan, I see what I thought was in stock isn't, but Lauer's Hegel is, and one cannot imagine much better anow almost impossibly condensed introduction to a virtually condensed introduction into an ontologically unfathomable albeit mandatory as Hegel's History of Philosophy.

[Nell]

Of the Relation of Philosophy to Religion starting pg 99 in pure concept proves religion to be no more than fantasy. 1800's eh?