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Hegel: A Biography
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 first major biography of Hegel in English offers not only a complete, up-to-date account of the life, but also an overview of the key philosophical concepts in Hegel's work in an accessible style. 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 Napolean. Pinkard explores Hegel's interactions with some of the great minds of this Hölderlin, Goethe, Humboldt, Schelling, Novalis, the Schlegels, Mendelssohn, and others. Throughout, he avoids Hegal's own famously technical jargon in order to display the full sweep and power of Hegel's thought. Terry Pinkard is professor of Philosophy at Northwestern University and is author/editor of five previous books, the most recent being ^UHegel's Phenomenology (Cambridge, 1996). He is honorary Professor of the Philosophy Faculty of TÜbingen University, Germany and serves on the advisory board for the Zeitschrift fÜr Philosophique Forschung.
800 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2000
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September 27, 2018
"Christoph Theodor Schwab visited Hölderlin shortly before his death on June 7, 1843. He asked him whether he had thought of Hegel. Hölderlin answered that of course he had, muttered something incomprehensible, and then noted simply, "The Absolute""
An incredibly well written and thoroughly researched biography that combines intensely rich and detailed examination of Hegel's life with a rigorous exposition of his philosophy and evolution of thought. Hegel is portrayed as a man of great passion, dynamism and intelligence.
Less desirable facets of Hegel's life and personality are not omitted and discussed openly, giving a balanced and authentic view of one of history's greatest thinkers.
With exposition covering the philosophy, art, history, politics of Hegel's environment, the work is immensely vivid. Bravo to Pinkard who's work here is nothing short of fantastic, an honestly splendid read.
Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in Hegel, German idealism or philosophy in general.
An incredibly well written and thoroughly researched biography that combines intensely rich and detailed examination of Hegel's life with a rigorous exposition of his philosophy and evolution of thought. Hegel is portrayed as a man of great passion, dynamism and intelligence.
Less desirable facets of Hegel's life and personality are not omitted and discussed openly, giving a balanced and authentic view of one of history's greatest thinkers.
With exposition covering the philosophy, art, history, politics of Hegel's environment, the work is immensely vivid. Bravo to Pinkard who's work here is nothing short of fantastic, an honestly splendid read.
Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in Hegel, German idealism or philosophy in general.
May 4, 2016
Published in 2000, this is the first major biography of Hegel in English. Hegel died in 1831. Why did it take so long? Well, a big part of the reason may be that the man just didn't lead a particularly scintillating life. Pinkard doesn't have a lot to work with in terms of human drama. There's a lot of academic backbiting and university politics. Compare, say, the life of Marx, and I think most would agree this is pretty thin stuff.
As far as his subject's personality, Pinkard keeps insisting that Hegel was a surprisingly normal, sociable fellow. I guess this is supposed to be counter-intuitive and therefore kind of interesting. Speaking for myself, I can't really agree. The tortured genius may be a bit of a cliche, but the interestingly boring professor isn't much of an alternative.
The good news is that none of us this matters very much, since Pinkard really does know his philosophy. He does an excellent job not just explaining what Hegel said but showing the tension and drama internal to his thought. The chapters exclusively concerned with philosophy are thrilling, the ones on Hegel's career and domestic life tend to drag.
*
I'm reading this biography in the hopes of actually tackling Hegel's first opus later this summer.
Considering that he takes 200 pages to get there, Pinkard's treatment of the Phenomenology is surprisingly brisk, under 20 pages.
Kant as representing a kind of 'good Friday' of thought. Where Kant himself downplayed the more skeptical implications of his philosophy, these did not go unnoticed by the next generation of philosophers. Romanticism arose partly in reaction to what many saw as Kant's nihilism. In the first critique Kant sought to demonstrate the failure of all previous metaphysical systems, to show in fact why all such metaphysical ambitions were doomed from the beginning. Kant would thus change the subject of philosophy, a turn from being itself to self-consciousness. 'Reason' provides coherence to our mental processes but does not gurantee any access to the world as it is. Many were dissatisfied with this situation, and yet Kant's revolution was seen as definitive. It wasn't possible to simply go back to an older kind of metaphysics, at least not through arguments. Kant had won the argument, but a longing for unity with being still remained. Thus while Romanticism started out as movement in philosophy, it would find its most natural expression in poetry - a medium which allowed the poet to adumbrate what could no longer be avowed directly as knowledge.
At this point (I'm on page 220) it's not exactly clear to me how Hegel fits into this picture. Pinkard emphasizes the importance of Kant's second critique for Hegel in writing the Phenomenology. Against Kant's notion of the pure will, Hegel sought to bring history and inter-subjectivity into philosophy. The struggle for recognition replaces the isolated conscience. All well and good. Kant's moral philosophy is sort of a hypertrophied Protestantism, low-hanging fruit in some respects. Hegel was surely right to reject as hopelessly abstract this project of founding morality on pure practical reason. However, the nature of Hegel's engagement with the first critique remains obscure for the moment.
*
Great discussion of the Logic. Is Hegel's 'absolute Idea' perhaps equivalent to the 'pre-thematized life-world' of Husserl? The background space of reason or implicit whole in which all our thinking occurs. Does Hegel believe this can ever fully be articulated? The usual knock on him, which may or may not be fair (I'm still only on page 352!), is that he was arrogant enough to believe he had provided this final articulation, thus completing philosophy and bringing it to a close.
On the surface Hegel may appear somewhat similar to Spinoza. They seem to share a quasi-mystical obsession with the whole. Yet in his Logic Hegel thought he'd given the definitive refutation of Spinozism, by showing how Spinoza's conception of the whole precludes the possibility of a thinking subject capable of comprehending it. Thus if Spinozism is true it must also be absurd and unknowable.
This is a very interesting and relevant line of thought, especially when you consider the contemporary vogue of Spinoza among neuro-scientists wishing to give a reductive account of mind. Hegel is there to beat back this perennial temptation.
As far as his subject's personality, Pinkard keeps insisting that Hegel was a surprisingly normal, sociable fellow. I guess this is supposed to be counter-intuitive and therefore kind of interesting. Speaking for myself, I can't really agree. The tortured genius may be a bit of a cliche, but the interestingly boring professor isn't much of an alternative.
The good news is that none of us this matters very much, since Pinkard really does know his philosophy. He does an excellent job not just explaining what Hegel said but showing the tension and drama internal to his thought. The chapters exclusively concerned with philosophy are thrilling, the ones on Hegel's career and domestic life tend to drag.
*
I'm reading this biography in the hopes of actually tackling Hegel's first opus later this summer.
Considering that he takes 200 pages to get there, Pinkard's treatment of the Phenomenology is surprisingly brisk, under 20 pages.
Kant as representing a kind of 'good Friday' of thought. Where Kant himself downplayed the more skeptical implications of his philosophy, these did not go unnoticed by the next generation of philosophers. Romanticism arose partly in reaction to what many saw as Kant's nihilism. In the first critique Kant sought to demonstrate the failure of all previous metaphysical systems, to show in fact why all such metaphysical ambitions were doomed from the beginning. Kant would thus change the subject of philosophy, a turn from being itself to self-consciousness. 'Reason' provides coherence to our mental processes but does not gurantee any access to the world as it is. Many were dissatisfied with this situation, and yet Kant's revolution was seen as definitive. It wasn't possible to simply go back to an older kind of metaphysics, at least not through arguments. Kant had won the argument, but a longing for unity with being still remained. Thus while Romanticism started out as movement in philosophy, it would find its most natural expression in poetry - a medium which allowed the poet to adumbrate what could no longer be avowed directly as knowledge.
At this point (I'm on page 220) it's not exactly clear to me how Hegel fits into this picture. Pinkard emphasizes the importance of Kant's second critique for Hegel in writing the Phenomenology. Against Kant's notion of the pure will, Hegel sought to bring history and inter-subjectivity into philosophy. The struggle for recognition replaces the isolated conscience. All well and good. Kant's moral philosophy is sort of a hypertrophied Protestantism, low-hanging fruit in some respects. Hegel was surely right to reject as hopelessly abstract this project of founding morality on pure practical reason. However, the nature of Hegel's engagement with the first critique remains obscure for the moment.
*
Great discussion of the Logic. Is Hegel's 'absolute Idea' perhaps equivalent to the 'pre-thematized life-world' of Husserl? The background space of reason or implicit whole in which all our thinking occurs. Does Hegel believe this can ever fully be articulated? The usual knock on him, which may or may not be fair (I'm still only on page 352!), is that he was arrogant enough to believe he had provided this final articulation, thus completing philosophy and bringing it to a close.
On the surface Hegel may appear somewhat similar to Spinoza. They seem to share a quasi-mystical obsession with the whole. Yet in his Logic Hegel thought he'd given the definitive refutation of Spinozism, by showing how Spinoza's conception of the whole precludes the possibility of a thinking subject capable of comprehending it. Thus if Spinozism is true it must also be absurd and unknowable.
This is a very interesting and relevant line of thought, especially when you consider the contemporary vogue of Spinoza among neuro-scientists wishing to give a reductive account of mind. Hegel is there to beat back this perennial temptation.
January 28, 2016
Formally this one should go on my biography shelf, but this work on Hegel's career so helpfully addressed my own reading limitations that I have to count it as a work of philosophy.
I had read The Phenomenology more than once, and dutifully slogged through the (more readable) lectures on aesthetics and the history of philosophy. So before reading Pinkard's work I had a pretty good handle on Hegel in a history-of-ideas sort of way.
But Hegel never took my breath away--as has practically every other major philosopher who I've been lucky enough to study at length. I just couldn't figure out why Hegel was such a big deal. I knew that he was and knew my not getting it pointed to a hole in my understanding, not at the quality of his contribution.
In his preface to The Tempest Dr. Johnson comments on Shakespeare, "...as we owe everything to him, he owes something to us; that, if much of his praise be given by perception and judgement, much is likewise given by custom and veneration." Terry Pinkard's biography helped me understand why so much is given to Hegel by custom and veneration, and with a clearer idea of why his peers, and the next generation or two, revered him and his work, my subsequent readings of The Phenomenology have been more generous and comprehending. Thanks to Pinkard I get why he's such a big deal.
So here's what Pinkard's biography taught me about Hegel's status.
Because Hegel was from a small town he had to go to a crappy little seminary not a big prestigious university. There he was formed intellectually by the luck of making two dear friends there (Holderlin and Schelling)who were themselves to emerge as significant intellectuals. As he was becoming an adult, patriotism, as it happened, French patriotism, was emerging as a force in the world for the very first time. Hegel set himself the task of trying to understand what was happening as the notion of the fatherland transformed itself into the idea of the nation state.
Here the details help, but it's to be remembered that The Holy Roman Empire was an actual administrative entity in Hegel's time, and progressives were longing for something to come into being that could be called Germany. They wanted this because the French model suggested to them that if the little kingdoms united into a nation it would hire secular philosophers to help determine policy and to provide the historical knowledge thought to be wise government's most crucial source.
Hegel was constantly writing his friends begging for help finding a job teaching philosophy at a University, but he could never find such a job. So he had to be a tutor, edit a learned journal and then a newspaper, and then more or less a high school principal with teaching duties. Finally, at age forty six, he got appointed to a university professorship at Heidelberg. He had a deep sense, perhaps mistaken, but quite sincere of what a Professor might and ought to be in the New World Order of his time.This allowed him to invent himself as a self-conscious role model, and many younger ambitious intellectuals learned from him how to take a stance under the new conditions of state patronage.
Pinkard is not only smart about putting together the details of Hegel's life to form a revealing and compelling life story, but along the way he makes use of his own professorial explaining skill. You get a sense of the Kantian waters that everyone in Hegel's generation with philosophic ambitions had to swim in. You follow both the controversies within Kantian thought, and the polemic against it. There's a ton of such commentary throughout the book, and yet, at least to me, while some of it slowed me down none of it bogged me down.
Much of Hegel's prose is not at all obscure. The Phenomenology is famously obscure, and there are lot of good commentaries on it. Once you've worked you way through that kind of study, though, if like me you're still puzzled by Hegel's achievement, Pinkard's book may be just the help you need to snap it into focus.
I had read The Phenomenology more than once, and dutifully slogged through the (more readable) lectures on aesthetics and the history of philosophy. So before reading Pinkard's work I had a pretty good handle on Hegel in a history-of-ideas sort of way.
But Hegel never took my breath away--as has practically every other major philosopher who I've been lucky enough to study at length. I just couldn't figure out why Hegel was such a big deal. I knew that he was and knew my not getting it pointed to a hole in my understanding, not at the quality of his contribution.
In his preface to The Tempest Dr. Johnson comments on Shakespeare, "...as we owe everything to him, he owes something to us; that, if much of his praise be given by perception and judgement, much is likewise given by custom and veneration." Terry Pinkard's biography helped me understand why so much is given to Hegel by custom and veneration, and with a clearer idea of why his peers, and the next generation or two, revered him and his work, my subsequent readings of The Phenomenology have been more generous and comprehending. Thanks to Pinkard I get why he's such a big deal.
So here's what Pinkard's biography taught me about Hegel's status.
Because Hegel was from a small town he had to go to a crappy little seminary not a big prestigious university. There he was formed intellectually by the luck of making two dear friends there (Holderlin and Schelling)who were themselves to emerge as significant intellectuals. As he was becoming an adult, patriotism, as it happened, French patriotism, was emerging as a force in the world for the very first time. Hegel set himself the task of trying to understand what was happening as the notion of the fatherland transformed itself into the idea of the nation state.
Here the details help, but it's to be remembered that The Holy Roman Empire was an actual administrative entity in Hegel's time, and progressives were longing for something to come into being that could be called Germany. They wanted this because the French model suggested to them that if the little kingdoms united into a nation it would hire secular philosophers to help determine policy and to provide the historical knowledge thought to be wise government's most crucial source.
Hegel was constantly writing his friends begging for help finding a job teaching philosophy at a University, but he could never find such a job. So he had to be a tutor, edit a learned journal and then a newspaper, and then more or less a high school principal with teaching duties. Finally, at age forty six, he got appointed to a university professorship at Heidelberg. He had a deep sense, perhaps mistaken, but quite sincere of what a Professor might and ought to be in the New World Order of his time.This allowed him to invent himself as a self-conscious role model, and many younger ambitious intellectuals learned from him how to take a stance under the new conditions of state patronage.
Pinkard is not only smart about putting together the details of Hegel's life to form a revealing and compelling life story, but along the way he makes use of his own professorial explaining skill. You get a sense of the Kantian waters that everyone in Hegel's generation with philosophic ambitions had to swim in. You follow both the controversies within Kantian thought, and the polemic against it. There's a ton of such commentary throughout the book, and yet, at least to me, while some of it slowed me down none of it bogged me down.
Much of Hegel's prose is not at all obscure. The Phenomenology is famously obscure, and there are lot of good commentaries on it. Once you've worked you way through that kind of study, though, if like me you're still puzzled by Hegel's achievement, Pinkard's book may be just the help you need to snap it into focus.
April 14, 2021
Pinkard really helps put Hegel in perspective, his love life, his dorkyness, and the not so great parts too, for example his sexism. It's very a personal biography based on many of his journals growing up.
I wasn't required to read this, but when I studied Hegel in one of my semesters in university. My professor recommended I read this book over the summer. It was good advice; reading the biography allowed me to see how Hegel's thought changed overtime, you could see how certain ideas were being formed.
Although, I'm not sure who would be interested in Hegel outside of people interested in studying him, I can't say I would recommend it to someone outside that field--maybe history?
But if you are reading this, then it's likely you are interested in Hegel, Philosophy student or not, if that's the case, and you're interested in the man behind the works, I can't recommend it enough.
I wasn't required to read this, but when I studied Hegel in one of my semesters in university. My professor recommended I read this book over the summer. It was good advice; reading the biography allowed me to see how Hegel's thought changed overtime, you could see how certain ideas were being formed.
Although, I'm not sure who would be interested in Hegel outside of people interested in studying him, I can't say I would recommend it to someone outside that field--maybe history?
But if you are reading this, then it's likely you are interested in Hegel, Philosophy student or not, if that's the case, and you're interested in the man behind the works, I can't recommend it enough.
February 7, 2022
Mæli eindregið með. Auðlesin og málar góða mynd af þversagnakenndum manni sem stritaði stöðugt við það að ná utan um samtíma sinn og sögu mannshugans. Pinkard staðsetur Hegel glæsilega í sögulegu samhengi hans þar sem stór hópur sögulegra persóna (t.d Hölderlin, Schelling, Ganz og Schleichermacher) og sögulegir atburðir eru sýndir móta hugsun Hegels. Túlkunin á hugsun Hegels í þessari ævisögu virðist frá mínu fáfróða sjónarhorni vera undir miklum áhrifum frá Pippin og þekkingarfræðilegu nálguninni sem hefur verið gríðarlega ríkjandi í engilsaxneskum Hegel fræðum. Kannski er það varúðarmerki fyrir suma. Ég mæli þó, aftur, eindregið með þessari bók.
July 8, 2019
This book is an essential read for anyone delving into Hegel's corpus. And not because his thought necessarily benefits from a historical contextualization in the nascency and Bildung of German Idealism as an intellectual moment or movement (though Pinkard does an excellemt job of framing such a context). Neither is it for Pinkard's explications of Hegel's texts provided herein, for while they are valuable for those uninitiated into the labyrinthine shades of Hegel's prose, they are somewhat biased by Pinkard's Analytic reading of Hegel (á la Robert B Pippin).
Beyond the elements all too briefly outlined above, Pippin's book is invaluable in its manoeuvring between the biographical figure and his effacement as the purveyor or vehicle, the voice or the hermeneut, of the neutral and anonymous Geist which cannot be strictly identified with any people or nation (as a common Hegelian myth would have it). The voice of all, of no one, rumbling just beneath every word and every thought as its ground and its imminent ungrounding in a eruption of negativity.
Was Hegel a prophet, then? A sage? Or simply a child of his times, of its Bildung and Sittlichkeit, more attuned to this silent undercurrent? Was he but a dying man, ever listening to his dying, the dying of all that exhales its final gasps over the breadth of what we call history? It is up to those who are still to come to decide Hegel's fate. History shall be his judge, over his remembrance or his effacement (just as he would have it). And this book shall be but a piece in the (un-)working of that memory, of that forgetting...
Beyond the elements all too briefly outlined above, Pippin's book is invaluable in its manoeuvring between the biographical figure and his effacement as the purveyor or vehicle, the voice or the hermeneut, of the neutral and anonymous Geist which cannot be strictly identified with any people or nation (as a common Hegelian myth would have it). The voice of all, of no one, rumbling just beneath every word and every thought as its ground and its imminent ungrounding in a eruption of negativity.
Was Hegel a prophet, then? A sage? Or simply a child of his times, of its Bildung and Sittlichkeit, more attuned to this silent undercurrent? Was he but a dying man, ever listening to his dying, the dying of all that exhales its final gasps over the breadth of what we call history? It is up to those who are still to come to decide Hegel's fate. History shall be his judge, over his remembrance or his effacement (just as he would have it). And this book shall be but a piece in the (un-)working of that memory, of that forgetting...
January 14, 2012
Incredible. Successfully debunks some of the notorious Hegelian myths and presents Hegel as a person that, over the course of the book, I came to admire even more than before.
May 12, 2024
Well written and meticulously researched, this book turned out to be much more interesting than I had expected. That said, Hegel rightfully earned the nickname "Old Man" while he was still in school – so don't set your expectations too high. It covers Hegel's personal and professional life in great detail, and Pinkard presents his philosophy in a highly accessible manner. However, it is important to note that he advocates for a specific interpretation of Hegel, emphasizing the social and political dimensions while diminishing the metaphysical themes. Rather than portraying Hegel as an obscure, overly-systematic, old-fashioned theorist, Pinkard presents him as a practical philosopher of rational, self-determining modernity, whose ideas remain relevant today. Viewing Hegel's intellectual development as an attempt to philosophically explain the revolutionary changes of the era, Pinkard often goes at great length to provide the proper historical context. His descriptions of social relations, the university system, and political conflicts are excellent and often more captivating than Hegel's somewhat unexciting life.
In addition to addressing philosophical misconceptions, Pinkard also dispels some common legends surrounding Hegel's life. There are some interesting biographical details, and you can learn quite a lot about Hegel's personality. He faced ongoing financial difficulties because he lacked a steady job and had to frequently buy wine. At one point, he even wrote directly to Goethe, seeking a newly available botany professorship in Jena; he highlighted his qualifications as a philosopher and the fact that he once owned an herbarium. His self-confidence only grew over time; he eventually attempted to disprove Newtonian mathematical derivations of natural laws and argued that it is logically and spiritually impossible for comets to collide with Earth. Pinkard uses the phrase "charming quaintness" to describe such flamboyant failures, and the chapter on nature and religion is hilarious. Not confined to theoretical disputes, Hegel once engaged in a heated argument about a supposedly incorrect description of a battle in a book with an officer who actually participated in that battle. An avid card-player, Hegel also regularly played the state lottery, viewing the jackpot as the most rational solution to his perpetual financial difficulties. While the book provides a lot of entertaining anecdotes and trivia, some important parts of Hegel's life can only be subject to speculation because a lot of letters and documents were destroyed, often intentionally.
Overall, Pinkard tries to portrait him as gregarious, jovial and funny, while also acknowledging his struggles with anxiety and the complex, contradictory aspects of his character. Some critics argue that Hegel's celebrity status in Berlin stemmed more from his personality and connections than from his compelling philosophical arguments. While Pinkard's portrayal is sympathetic, he does not shy away from addressing the less flattering parts. However, there is not a lot of scandalous or eccentric incidents in Hegel's life – a bit disappointing actually. While on a short pause from pondering about spiritual and moral renewal of mankind, Hegel managed to have an extramarital son with his housekeeper, and he treated the kid like trash. This part of his ethical praxis was imitated both by Marx and Schopenhauer, so it is obviously not uncommon among high-minded moralists. Among Pinkard's more critical perspectives, he faults Hegel for engaging in petty personal disputes with progressive thinkers and for being overly pedantic in his critique of liberalism, all while carefully avoiding the ire of the conservative establishment, which ultimately tarnished his reputation. Just as the narrative begins to turn into a decent political thriller, it ends anticlimactically with Hegel, completely convinced that he is the main character, dying from a gastrointestinal illness – a demise reminiscent of Aristotle.
While other scholars may dispute details regarding interpretations, influences, or political goals of Hegel's philosophy as presented in this book, Pinkard argues his points convincingly. His portrayal of Hegel is undeniably more captivating and relevant than many traditional interpretations. But don't get overexcited – no matter from what interesting, new angle you look at his philosophy – it's still Hegel... Nonetheless, irrespective of what you think about Hegel, historical and social perspective of this book provides some intriguing, valuable insights. One area that could have been further expanded is the posthumous influence and subsequent criticisms of Hegel's philosophy. However, there is no shortage of literature on this topic, and this is already a lengthy book, so the omission is understandable. Overall, this is an excellent, detailed study, highly recommended for anyone interested in Hegel or the intellectual history of the era.
In addition to addressing philosophical misconceptions, Pinkard also dispels some common legends surrounding Hegel's life. There are some interesting biographical details, and you can learn quite a lot about Hegel's personality. He faced ongoing financial difficulties because he lacked a steady job and had to frequently buy wine. At one point, he even wrote directly to Goethe, seeking a newly available botany professorship in Jena; he highlighted his qualifications as a philosopher and the fact that he once owned an herbarium. His self-confidence only grew over time; he eventually attempted to disprove Newtonian mathematical derivations of natural laws and argued that it is logically and spiritually impossible for comets to collide with Earth. Pinkard uses the phrase "charming quaintness" to describe such flamboyant failures, and the chapter on nature and religion is hilarious. Not confined to theoretical disputes, Hegel once engaged in a heated argument about a supposedly incorrect description of a battle in a book with an officer who actually participated in that battle. An avid card-player, Hegel also regularly played the state lottery, viewing the jackpot as the most rational solution to his perpetual financial difficulties. While the book provides a lot of entertaining anecdotes and trivia, some important parts of Hegel's life can only be subject to speculation because a lot of letters and documents were destroyed, often intentionally.
Overall, Pinkard tries to portrait him as gregarious, jovial and funny, while also acknowledging his struggles with anxiety and the complex, contradictory aspects of his character. Some critics argue that Hegel's celebrity status in Berlin stemmed more from his personality and connections than from his compelling philosophical arguments. While Pinkard's portrayal is sympathetic, he does not shy away from addressing the less flattering parts. However, there is not a lot of scandalous or eccentric incidents in Hegel's life – a bit disappointing actually. While on a short pause from pondering about spiritual and moral renewal of mankind, Hegel managed to have an extramarital son with his housekeeper, and he treated the kid like trash. This part of his ethical praxis was imitated both by Marx and Schopenhauer, so it is obviously not uncommon among high-minded moralists. Among Pinkard's more critical perspectives, he faults Hegel for engaging in petty personal disputes with progressive thinkers and for being overly pedantic in his critique of liberalism, all while carefully avoiding the ire of the conservative establishment, which ultimately tarnished his reputation. Just as the narrative begins to turn into a decent political thriller, it ends anticlimactically with Hegel, completely convinced that he is the main character, dying from a gastrointestinal illness – a demise reminiscent of Aristotle.
While other scholars may dispute details regarding interpretations, influences, or political goals of Hegel's philosophy as presented in this book, Pinkard argues his points convincingly. His portrayal of Hegel is undeniably more captivating and relevant than many traditional interpretations. But don't get overexcited – no matter from what interesting, new angle you look at his philosophy – it's still Hegel... Nonetheless, irrespective of what you think about Hegel, historical and social perspective of this book provides some intriguing, valuable insights. One area that could have been further expanded is the posthumous influence and subsequent criticisms of Hegel's philosophy. However, there is no shortage of literature on this topic, and this is already a lengthy book, so the omission is understandable. Overall, this is an excellent, detailed study, highly recommended for anyone interested in Hegel or the intellectual history of the era.
December 7, 2025
Pinkard’s biography of Hegel is perhaps his best work. Unlike his other analyses of Hegel and his philosophy, here Pinkard largely manages to avoid reproducing a new vocabulary of Hegelian obfuscation in favor of actually allowing the reader to understand him and his view of Hegel. Pinkard definitively puts to rest the myth of the reactionary or Prussianist Hegel, showing the very clear instances in Hegel’s later life where he was obviously, if in a heterodox form, aligned with the liberal and revolutionary elements of broader European society which often landed him in hot water with the Prussian arch-reactionaries (for example, toasting every Bastille day, his meeting with a retired General Carnot, and his friendship with and visit to Paris to Victor Cousin, and his sympathy for Mignet’s proto-Guizotian view of the French Revolution). Pinkard’s Hegel is, of course, the serious academic devoted to a total explanation of his philosophical system, but also a jovial drinker and socialite with a wide circle of friends both Berliner and international, including Jewish thinkers and business, Frenchmen, Dutch government officials, etc.
Pinkard acknowledges Hegel’s personal faults: his abandonment of his son Ludwig Fischer, his unfortunate view of women and the modern family which, while perhaps progressive for his time, was still rather misogynistic, and his strange views on non-European societies which allowed for the possibility of their development into the critical-Enlightenment spirit, but held patently incorrect views of those societies lack of conceptions of “freedom,” etc, though Pinkard notes that Hegel’s views on non-Christian religions (for example, Tibetan Buddhism), were relatively progressive for his time in viewing them for “the necessity and truth of such religious forms, their connection with reason; and seeing that is a more difficult task than declaring something to be senseless” (582).
There are very touching moments, very surprising for the subject of Hegel, especially when Pinkard details the elder Hegel’s attempts to reconcile personally with Schelling and his remembrances and efforts to publish new editions of the long institutionalized Holderlin ( all the more sad that Holderlin outlived Hegel, and that Hegel never visited him owing to the paradigms of mental illness at the time). Allegedly, Pinkard relates, “The German literary scholar Christoph Theodor Schwab visited Holderlin shortly before his death on June 7, 1843. He asked him whether he had thought of Hegel. Holderlin answered that of course he had, muttered something incomprehensible, and then noted simply, ‘The Absolute’” (665). With the exception of Losurdo’s work, this is perhaps my favorite book on Hegel and his philosophy.
Pinkard acknowledges Hegel’s personal faults: his abandonment of his son Ludwig Fischer, his unfortunate view of women and the modern family which, while perhaps progressive for his time, was still rather misogynistic, and his strange views on non-European societies which allowed for the possibility of their development into the critical-Enlightenment spirit, but held patently incorrect views of those societies lack of conceptions of “freedom,” etc, though Pinkard notes that Hegel’s views on non-Christian religions (for example, Tibetan Buddhism), were relatively progressive for his time in viewing them for “the necessity and truth of such religious forms, their connection with reason; and seeing that is a more difficult task than declaring something to be senseless” (582).
There are very touching moments, very surprising for the subject of Hegel, especially when Pinkard details the elder Hegel’s attempts to reconcile personally with Schelling and his remembrances and efforts to publish new editions of the long institutionalized Holderlin ( all the more sad that Holderlin outlived Hegel, and that Hegel never visited him owing to the paradigms of mental illness at the time). Allegedly, Pinkard relates, “The German literary scholar Christoph Theodor Schwab visited Holderlin shortly before his death on June 7, 1843. He asked him whether he had thought of Hegel. Holderlin answered that of course he had, muttered something incomprehensible, and then noted simply, ‘The Absolute’” (665). With the exception of Losurdo’s work, this is perhaps my favorite book on Hegel and his philosophy.
March 10, 2020
In his magnum opus, ‘A History of Political Theory’, George Holland Sabine holds that, the philosophy of Hegel aimed at nothing less than an inclusive and methodical re-enactment of contemporary thought. Hegel's accent on "the state' as the quintessence in its fastidious era of the World Spirit stands so far beyond the individual that the latter has implication only as material upon which spirits works its will. Hegel championed war and with it the doctrines of Fascism and Nazism. He touched various sides of thought. His thought has been subjected to various interpretations from fascism to socialism. The contribution of Hegel to political thought is rather inestimable and it will be many years before the full influence of Hegel's political thought can be measured. His contribution, which would not have been of his own choosing, to the warring ideologies represented on the one side by Lenin and Stalin and on the other by Mussolini and Hitler, constitutes but one part of his significance. "
I recently had the fortune of going through ‘Hegel: A Biography’ by Terry Pinkard. I have little doubt in my mind that this book is the fullest and indubitably the most preeminent description of Hegel in the language of the kings. The introduction to this book declares: “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 first major biography of Hegel in English offers not only a complete, up-to-date account of the life, but also an overview of the key philosophical concepts in Hegel's work in an accessible style. 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 Napolean.”
In the philosophical convention known as German Idealism, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was the 'bella figura'. One goes on to ally with Immanuel Kant, the materialization of German Idealism. Kant’s archetypal work, ‘The Critique of Pure Reason’, was published in 1781. Fichte and Schelling expanded this institution further. Hegel, who was a contemporary and a friend of Schelling, is often perceived to be the zenith of this philosophical ritual.
Hegel was born, in Stuttgart, in 1770 in what is at this instant south-western Germany. On concluding his studies in 1793, he worked for some time as an instructor for affluent families in Switzerland and in Frankfurt. For the extent of these years, he penned a a small number of essays on religious conviction, which were published posthumously as ‘Early Theological Writings’. Rather intriguingly, in these essays, he wrestled both with Kantian values and the sermons of Jesus.
From Kant he absorbed that the vitally imperative element of human nature is reason, while from Jesus he imbibed that the most significant trait of human nature is love. In these essays, Hegel seemed to support Jesus's pose over that of Kant's. However, later he would go on to aver ‘autonomy’ as the elemental attribute of human nature and to explore the correlation of human self-determination to human rationale and adore. While in his thirties, Hegel commenced on a teaching assignment at the University of Jena. This segment of his life was plainly magic. It is here that he wrote his greatest work, ‘Phenomenology of Spirit’. Hegel reminisces that he was as he was penning down the concluding lines of Phenomenology of Spirit, Napoleon was marching his horde into the city of Jena.
After Napoleon’s conquest of Jena, its university closed down. Hegel had to toil for about a year as a newspaper editor in Bamberg and subsequently as the headmaster of a high school at Nuremberg, where he stuck for nine years. In 1816, he relocated to the University of Heidelberg. After a concise stint there, he took up the chair of philosophy at the University of Berlin, in 1818. He worked and taught there till his demise.
By the time of his end in November, 1831, philosophy departments accross Europe were ruled and governed by Hegelian initiatives. There’s no overstating the verity that during the tumultuous years of the French Revolution, and the Napoleonic invasions of diverse parts of Europe, Hegel came of age. Enlightenment had its own confined zest and aroma in Scotland, England, France, and Germany. German Enlightenment was arbitrated very stalwartly by the Romantic Movement and its sponsorship of individual perspicuity. Goethe, who was the soaring figure of German Romanticism, and several other important German Romantics, such as Holderlin and the Schlegel brothers, were Hegel's bosom associates. Thus, Hegel was a thinker who acted as the bridge between German Enlightenment as well as German Romanticism.
Counter to British empiricists, for instance Locke and Hume, and soon after Mill, who deemed all human awareness to be derived from sense-impressions, the German Idealists gave a principal location to our deliberations and our inspirations as the building chunks of human comprehension. German Idealism inherited the epistemological question-How do human beings get to know their world?-from the empiricists. Beginning with this question, and analysing different forms of knowledge, like science (pure reason) and moral knowledge (practical reason), Kant moved from the realm of epistemology to that of moral and political philosophy. In Hegel we find epistemological questions linked even more strongly to moral and political concerns.
Since Hegel taught philosophy for so long, loads of of his works have survived in the form of lecture notes, such as, Lectures on the Philosophy of History, Lectures on Aesthetics, and Lectures on the History of Philosophy. Hegel was a mercurial writer. After publishing Phenomenology of Spirit, in 1807, he brought out Science of Logic in three volumes, followed by Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences, and finally, in 1821, Philosophy of Right. Hegel's work has been subject to many elucidations. As soon as he died, his works engendered the two distinct schools of the right Hegelians and the left Hegelians. The former interpreted Hegel as a conformist thinker who was attempting to defend the status quo, whereas the left Hegelians, such as Ludwig Feuerbach and Marx, saw Hegel's work as having sweeping implications.
All this and much more have been dealt with in this book by Terry Pinkard, professor of Philosophy at Northwestern University and the author/editor of five previous books on Hegel.
Read it for yourself.
I recently had the fortune of going through ‘Hegel: A Biography’ by Terry Pinkard. I have little doubt in my mind that this book is the fullest and indubitably the most preeminent description of Hegel in the language of the kings. The introduction to this book declares: “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 first major biography of Hegel in English offers not only a complete, up-to-date account of the life, but also an overview of the key philosophical concepts in Hegel's work in an accessible style. 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 Napolean.”
In the philosophical convention known as German Idealism, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was the 'bella figura'. One goes on to ally with Immanuel Kant, the materialization of German Idealism. Kant’s archetypal work, ‘The Critique of Pure Reason’, was published in 1781. Fichte and Schelling expanded this institution further. Hegel, who was a contemporary and a friend of Schelling, is often perceived to be the zenith of this philosophical ritual.
Hegel was born, in Stuttgart, in 1770 in what is at this instant south-western Germany. On concluding his studies in 1793, he worked for some time as an instructor for affluent families in Switzerland and in Frankfurt. For the extent of these years, he penned a a small number of essays on religious conviction, which were published posthumously as ‘Early Theological Writings’. Rather intriguingly, in these essays, he wrestled both with Kantian values and the sermons of Jesus.
From Kant he absorbed that the vitally imperative element of human nature is reason, while from Jesus he imbibed that the most significant trait of human nature is love. In these essays, Hegel seemed to support Jesus's pose over that of Kant's. However, later he would go on to aver ‘autonomy’ as the elemental attribute of human nature and to explore the correlation of human self-determination to human rationale and adore. While in his thirties, Hegel commenced on a teaching assignment at the University of Jena. This segment of his life was plainly magic. It is here that he wrote his greatest work, ‘Phenomenology of Spirit’. Hegel reminisces that he was as he was penning down the concluding lines of Phenomenology of Spirit, Napoleon was marching his horde into the city of Jena.
After Napoleon’s conquest of Jena, its university closed down. Hegel had to toil for about a year as a newspaper editor in Bamberg and subsequently as the headmaster of a high school at Nuremberg, where he stuck for nine years. In 1816, he relocated to the University of Heidelberg. After a concise stint there, he took up the chair of philosophy at the University of Berlin, in 1818. He worked and taught there till his demise.
By the time of his end in November, 1831, philosophy departments accross Europe were ruled and governed by Hegelian initiatives. There’s no overstating the verity that during the tumultuous years of the French Revolution, and the Napoleonic invasions of diverse parts of Europe, Hegel came of age. Enlightenment had its own confined zest and aroma in Scotland, England, France, and Germany. German Enlightenment was arbitrated very stalwartly by the Romantic Movement and its sponsorship of individual perspicuity. Goethe, who was the soaring figure of German Romanticism, and several other important German Romantics, such as Holderlin and the Schlegel brothers, were Hegel's bosom associates. Thus, Hegel was a thinker who acted as the bridge between German Enlightenment as well as German Romanticism.
Counter to British empiricists, for instance Locke and Hume, and soon after Mill, who deemed all human awareness to be derived from sense-impressions, the German Idealists gave a principal location to our deliberations and our inspirations as the building chunks of human comprehension. German Idealism inherited the epistemological question-How do human beings get to know their world?-from the empiricists. Beginning with this question, and analysing different forms of knowledge, like science (pure reason) and moral knowledge (practical reason), Kant moved from the realm of epistemology to that of moral and political philosophy. In Hegel we find epistemological questions linked even more strongly to moral and political concerns.
Since Hegel taught philosophy for so long, loads of of his works have survived in the form of lecture notes, such as, Lectures on the Philosophy of History, Lectures on Aesthetics, and Lectures on the History of Philosophy. Hegel was a mercurial writer. After publishing Phenomenology of Spirit, in 1807, he brought out Science of Logic in three volumes, followed by Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences, and finally, in 1821, Philosophy of Right. Hegel's work has been subject to many elucidations. As soon as he died, his works engendered the two distinct schools of the right Hegelians and the left Hegelians. The former interpreted Hegel as a conformist thinker who was attempting to defend the status quo, whereas the left Hegelians, such as Ludwig Feuerbach and Marx, saw Hegel's work as having sweeping implications.
All this and much more have been dealt with in this book by Terry Pinkard, professor of Philosophy at Northwestern University and the author/editor of five previous books on Hegel.
Read it for yourself.
January 21, 2020
Hegel'in felsefesini değil ama yaşamını öğrenmek için güzel bir kitap. Zaten Hegel felsefesini anlamak için önce Kant'ı, Fichte'yi ve Schelling'i bilmek gerekir. Kant'ı bilmek için Hume'u okumak gerekir. Hume için empiristleri, empiristler için Descartes'i tanımak şarttır. Descartes'e Skolastik felsefeye uğramadan gidilmez. Skolastikler için Hristiyanlığı, İsa öğretisi için Stoa felsefesini, yeni Platonculuğu ve Aristo'yu okumak gerek. Aristo için herşeyi, herşey için hiçbir şeyi hissetmeli. Hiçbir şey için Parmenides'i, Parmenides için Herakleitos'u, Herakleitos için de Hegel'i anlamak gerekir.
January 14, 2019
It change a lot the idea of who is Hegel, his curious pseudoscience about the planet movement, but also his tremendous knowledge of history and philosophy, a master on this domain
October 5, 2019
Tämä oli todella hyvä ja tuli tarpeeseen!
August 4, 2024
AN EXCELLENT AND AUTHORITATIVE BIOGRAPHY BY A PHILOSOPHER
Terry Pinkard is professor of philosophy at Georgetown university, and has also written books such as 'Hegel's Phenomenology: The Sociality of Reason,' 'German Philosophy 1760-1860: The Legacy of Idealism,' 'Hegel's Dialectic: The Explanation of Possibility,' etc.
He wrote in the Preface to this 2000 book, "Hegel [1770-1831] is one of those thinkers just about all educated people think they know something about." He states the common opinion about Hegel: "His philosophy was the forerunner to Karl Marx's theory of history, but unlike Marx, who was a materialist, Hegel was an idealist in the sense that he thought that reality was ultimately spiritual, and that it developed according to the process of thesis/antithesis/synthesis. Hegel also glorified the Prussian state, claiming that it was God's work..." but then he asserts, "Just about everything in the first paragraph is false except for the first sentence... Hegel, the mystery figure, remains as controversial as if he had been lecturing on the campuses only yesterday... Who then was Hegel?" (Pg. xi, xiii)
He admits early in the book, "Hegel's diary entries might thus seem to make him out to be some kind of reclusive bookworm, a kind of premature old fogy---his nickname, after all, among his friends while he was a student at Tubingen University was 'the old man'---unless one keeps in mind that diary entries, like all forms of autobiography, tend to be highly selective." (Pg. 10) Later, he notes, "His tastes in wine also tended to exceed his budget." (Pg. 116) He also states, "[Hegel] continued... regularly and with gusto to play the state lottery, hoping for a big win one day to put his financial worries at ease. (Hegel was not a shrewd handler of his money... he regularly overestimated how much money was going to be coming in, and... overspent himself.)" (Pg. 434)
He also records that Hegel in 1806 "was also engaging in a sexual liaison with ... his landlady and housekeeper, which resulted in the birth ... of his illegitimate son, Ludwig Fischer." (Pg. 192) Later, Hegel "not only needed money, he now had a child that he felt at least some moral obligation to support." (Pg. 233) He adds, "Hegel also began... to refer to the child by the French name Louis instead of as Ludwig, as if he were trying to distance himself psychologically from the reality of his illegitimate child; he only became Ludwig to Hegel when in 1816, five years after his marriage, Hegel decided to accept him into his household. It is also clear that the matter hung heavily on his conscience." (Pg. 237) Pinkard observes, "[as] Ludwig had been raised in an orphanage without ever really knowing his father and mother, both of whom had abandoned him ... it is no surprise to find that he had developed some personal difficulties that were a bit abrasive in the context of the Hegel family." (Pg. 355) Ultimately, Ludwig left the household and joined the Dutch army; "There can be little doubt that Hegel was deeply troubled by his relationship with Ludwig and how things had turned out, and it is also clear that he also bore a good amount of responsibility for the fact that it went off so badly." (Pg. 547-548)
Pinkard notes that "Although his lecturing style irritated no small number of people, it also, curiously enough, helped to underwrite a kind of Romantic appreciation of Hegel. His followers, from Jena to Berlin, were inclined to take his monotonic delivery... to be a sign of his great 'interiority,' of the depths of his genius struggling to bring those dark, difficult thoughts to the light of day..." (Pg. 327) But after Hegel became famous, "Hegel's otherwise irritating mannerisms had become accordingly increasingly chic. His lecture style, punctuated as always by its typical stutters, gasps, coughs, his pausing to flip through papers... only became part of the show." (Pg. 611)
This is a fascinating and very insightful biography by a philosopher who has a clear grasp of Hegel's philosophy, and is "essential reading" for anyone wanting to know more about Hegel.
Terry Pinkard is professor of philosophy at Georgetown university, and has also written books such as 'Hegel's Phenomenology: The Sociality of Reason,' 'German Philosophy 1760-1860: The Legacy of Idealism,' 'Hegel's Dialectic: The Explanation of Possibility,' etc.
He wrote in the Preface to this 2000 book, "Hegel [1770-1831] is one of those thinkers just about all educated people think they know something about." He states the common opinion about Hegel: "His philosophy was the forerunner to Karl Marx's theory of history, but unlike Marx, who was a materialist, Hegel was an idealist in the sense that he thought that reality was ultimately spiritual, and that it developed according to the process of thesis/antithesis/synthesis. Hegel also glorified the Prussian state, claiming that it was God's work..." but then he asserts, "Just about everything in the first paragraph is false except for the first sentence... Hegel, the mystery figure, remains as controversial as if he had been lecturing on the campuses only yesterday... Who then was Hegel?" (Pg. xi, xiii)
He admits early in the book, "Hegel's diary entries might thus seem to make him out to be some kind of reclusive bookworm, a kind of premature old fogy---his nickname, after all, among his friends while he was a student at Tubingen University was 'the old man'---unless one keeps in mind that diary entries, like all forms of autobiography, tend to be highly selective." (Pg. 10) Later, he notes, "His tastes in wine also tended to exceed his budget." (Pg. 116) He also states, "[Hegel] continued... regularly and with gusto to play the state lottery, hoping for a big win one day to put his financial worries at ease. (Hegel was not a shrewd handler of his money... he regularly overestimated how much money was going to be coming in, and... overspent himself.)" (Pg. 434)
He also records that Hegel in 1806 "was also engaging in a sexual liaison with ... his landlady and housekeeper, which resulted in the birth ... of his illegitimate son, Ludwig Fischer." (Pg. 192) Later, Hegel "not only needed money, he now had a child that he felt at least some moral obligation to support." (Pg. 233) He adds, "Hegel also began... to refer to the child by the French name Louis instead of as Ludwig, as if he were trying to distance himself psychologically from the reality of his illegitimate child; he only became Ludwig to Hegel when in 1816, five years after his marriage, Hegel decided to accept him into his household. It is also clear that the matter hung heavily on his conscience." (Pg. 237) Pinkard observes, "[as] Ludwig had been raised in an orphanage without ever really knowing his father and mother, both of whom had abandoned him ... it is no surprise to find that he had developed some personal difficulties that were a bit abrasive in the context of the Hegel family." (Pg. 355) Ultimately, Ludwig left the household and joined the Dutch army; "There can be little doubt that Hegel was deeply troubled by his relationship with Ludwig and how things had turned out, and it is also clear that he also bore a good amount of responsibility for the fact that it went off so badly." (Pg. 547-548)
Pinkard notes that "Although his lecturing style irritated no small number of people, it also, curiously enough, helped to underwrite a kind of Romantic appreciation of Hegel. His followers, from Jena to Berlin, were inclined to take his monotonic delivery... to be a sign of his great 'interiority,' of the depths of his genius struggling to bring those dark, difficult thoughts to the light of day..." (Pg. 327) But after Hegel became famous, "Hegel's otherwise irritating mannerisms had become accordingly increasingly chic. His lecture style, punctuated as always by its typical stutters, gasps, coughs, his pausing to flip through papers... only became part of the show." (Pg. 611)
This is a fascinating and very insightful biography by a philosopher who has a clear grasp of Hegel's philosophy, and is "essential reading" for anyone wanting to know more about Hegel.
December 21, 2021
I didn't read many books this year, mainly because I've been working my way through this one and Hegel's Encyclopedia. This was incredible. It's part biography, part intellectual history. The detail is expansive; I learned that Hegel styled his hair after Napoleon, that he once spoke Latin from a boat in the middle of the Spree to an imprisoned student, which wine he loved, what card games he liked to play.
Here's an example (p. 456). His lecture style was famously impenetrable in Berlin at the time. He mumbled, stuttered, shuffled papers, reworked a sentence, went quiet, then would refine it, repeat the whole thing, and begin every sentence with the word "therefore". Pinkard paints this picture, but then tells that his students loved him for it because they were really watching a philosopher think. I have experience with a similarly poor speaker, a philosopher at UChicago who stuttered and hesitated but when he finally said something it was an amazing gem that left the class dumbfounded. Pinkard brings these small scenes to life and they feel very close to home.
The chapters alternate biography and intellectual history. The biography charts his university time with his close friends Schelling and Hölderlin, his struggles to get a decent job, then university appointment (and constant begging his friend Niethammer for help), to his ascendency as one of the most popular men in Berlin by the time of his death. He came to success late in life, unlike his friend Schelling.
The intellectual history is incredibly helpful and I'd recommend to those looking for an intro to Hegel and German Idealism (chapter 4 in particular). There is one chapter dedicated to each of the Phenomenology, Logic, Philosophy of Right, and his lectures. Pinkard outlines how Hegel developed his ideas, what he wanted to achieve with each work, and a rough outline of the major arguments. He (Pinkard) is so clear it's hard to understand how he could take Hegel's words and turn them into this.
Pikard likes Hegel. He defends him while remaining fair to some obvious laps in Hegel's writing. Hegel didn't do himself any favors by attacking other philosophers so vehemently in his introductions, by writing such dense text or his line "what is rational is actual, what is actual is rational", accepting Goethe's theory of colors, and other points. However, Hegel was a great philosopher whose influence on Post-Kantian thought is remarkable. He lived in the spirit of his times, pushing for modernization and Buildung in Prussia where France and England had already started to make great progress.
Again, I highly recommend, even if you're just picking out a chapter here and there to help you through one of Hegel's books.
Here's an example (p. 456). His lecture style was famously impenetrable in Berlin at the time. He mumbled, stuttered, shuffled papers, reworked a sentence, went quiet, then would refine it, repeat the whole thing, and begin every sentence with the word "therefore". Pinkard paints this picture, but then tells that his students loved him for it because they were really watching a philosopher think. I have experience with a similarly poor speaker, a philosopher at UChicago who stuttered and hesitated but when he finally said something it was an amazing gem that left the class dumbfounded. Pinkard brings these small scenes to life and they feel very close to home.
The chapters alternate biography and intellectual history. The biography charts his university time with his close friends Schelling and Hölderlin, his struggles to get a decent job, then university appointment (and constant begging his friend Niethammer for help), to his ascendency as one of the most popular men in Berlin by the time of his death. He came to success late in life, unlike his friend Schelling.
The intellectual history is incredibly helpful and I'd recommend to those looking for an intro to Hegel and German Idealism (chapter 4 in particular). There is one chapter dedicated to each of the Phenomenology, Logic, Philosophy of Right, and his lectures. Pinkard outlines how Hegel developed his ideas, what he wanted to achieve with each work, and a rough outline of the major arguments. He (Pinkard) is so clear it's hard to understand how he could take Hegel's words and turn them into this.
Pikard likes Hegel. He defends him while remaining fair to some obvious laps in Hegel's writing. Hegel didn't do himself any favors by attacking other philosophers so vehemently in his introductions, by writing such dense text or his line "what is rational is actual, what is actual is rational", accepting Goethe's theory of colors, and other points. However, Hegel was a great philosopher whose influence on Post-Kantian thought is remarkable. He lived in the spirit of his times, pushing for modernization and Buildung in Prussia where France and England had already started to make great progress.
Again, I highly recommend, even if you're just picking out a chapter here and there to help you through one of Hegel's books.
February 8, 2020
Pinkard’s Hegel gripped this reader from the first paragraph, which explodes several myths about Hegel, to the end of his long book. Hegel specialists and lay aficionados alike owe a debt of gratitude to Terry Pinkard for giving us a modern biography of one of the world’s most influential philosophers.
And the book is wonderfully edited. I’m sure this nearly 800 page work of scholarship went through many, many revisions and drafts. Yet, nitpicker that I am, I only discovered three typos (on pages 421, 447, and 588).
Pinkard’s Hegel turns out to be a bit of a “foodie” in today’s parlance. I loved reading about Hegel’s adventures with wine and how he may first have learned to appreciate it while working as Hoffmeister (house tutor) to a wealthy wine merchant in Frankfurt. The mature Hegel always had a taste for the best wine and champagne and while, like most bourgeois of his time his wife was responsible for household management, Hegel made sure he remained master of his own wine cellar, ordering his wines himself. Hegel also loved good coffee, and he was one of the first in Berlin to embrace the Rumford percolating-drip coffee maker!
During the course of his biography Pinkard discusses in some detail most of Hegel’s philosophical writings. Although his discussion of Hegel’s Science of Logic mostly went over my head, I did appreciate reading his comments on Hegel’s other works. But I do have one complaint: the space in the book devoted to discussing Hegel’s Philosophy of Nature would have been better utilized commenting on Hegel’s illuminating lectures on the History of Philosophy.
Pinkard himself observes that Hegel’s Philosophy of Nature was mostly ignored in his own lifetime and then “fell into complete disrepute immediately after his death and has rarely been looked at since by anybody other than dedicated Hegel scholars.” And for good reason: Hegel’s Philosophy of Nature is absolute nonsense. Instead of wasting space on this aspect of Hegel’s philosophy, Pinkard would have been better-served by providing a discussion of Hegel’s lectures on the History of Philosophy, especially the lucid introduction to that work. Unfortunately, apart from citing these lectures in an epigraph that openes the book, Pinkard does not discuss these lectures at all.
But, this is still a very minor flaw in an otherwise wonderful book that provides a modern account of Hegel’s life and thought. Anyone who wants to know more about this seminal philosopher of modernity, or who is already a fan of Hegel’s writings, will be happy to have a copy of Pinkard’s Hegel: A biography in their personal library!
And the book is wonderfully edited. I’m sure this nearly 800 page work of scholarship went through many, many revisions and drafts. Yet, nitpicker that I am, I only discovered three typos (on pages 421, 447, and 588).
Pinkard’s Hegel turns out to be a bit of a “foodie” in today’s parlance. I loved reading about Hegel’s adventures with wine and how he may first have learned to appreciate it while working as Hoffmeister (house tutor) to a wealthy wine merchant in Frankfurt. The mature Hegel always had a taste for the best wine and champagne and while, like most bourgeois of his time his wife was responsible for household management, Hegel made sure he remained master of his own wine cellar, ordering his wines himself. Hegel also loved good coffee, and he was one of the first in Berlin to embrace the Rumford percolating-drip coffee maker!
During the course of his biography Pinkard discusses in some detail most of Hegel’s philosophical writings. Although his discussion of Hegel’s Science of Logic mostly went over my head, I did appreciate reading his comments on Hegel’s other works. But I do have one complaint: the space in the book devoted to discussing Hegel’s Philosophy of Nature would have been better utilized commenting on Hegel’s illuminating lectures on the History of Philosophy.
Pinkard himself observes that Hegel’s Philosophy of Nature was mostly ignored in his own lifetime and then “fell into complete disrepute immediately after his death and has rarely been looked at since by anybody other than dedicated Hegel scholars.” And for good reason: Hegel’s Philosophy of Nature is absolute nonsense. Instead of wasting space on this aspect of Hegel’s philosophy, Pinkard would have been better-served by providing a discussion of Hegel’s lectures on the History of Philosophy, especially the lucid introduction to that work. Unfortunately, apart from citing these lectures in an epigraph that openes the book, Pinkard does not discuss these lectures at all.
But, this is still a very minor flaw in an otherwise wonderful book that provides a modern account of Hegel’s life and thought. Anyone who wants to know more about this seminal philosopher of modernity, or who is already a fan of Hegel’s writings, will be happy to have a copy of Pinkard’s Hegel: A biography in their personal library!
May 18, 2020
highly detailed and densely researched account of the man's life, maybe a bit too much so? hegel's life wasn't terribly eventful, so things like his sister coming to visit, hegel trying to hire a tutor, go on for pages and pages. not much engagement with the philosophy, the social and professional jockeying for positions between hegel and his comeptitors is more to the fore in the accounts of the ideas than the ideas themselves, or their political import. if you're looking for a critical biography, as i was, i don't think pinkard is it
July 1, 2020
A must read for anyone looking to become acquainted with or to deepen their knowledge of Hegel. This is an all-round excellent book, despite some small issues.
August 25, 2020
Best intellectual biography of Hegel.
January 4, 2021
Thoroughly enjoyed it.
Currently reading
March 13, 2023sagolun kocama önericem
August 12, 2024
Lots of great detail, with interpretations of his main works and elements of his life that influence their reception and intent.
September 11, 2025
“Logos, etc.”nın Hegel buluşmasına hazırlık olması adına okuduğum kitaplardan biri olan Terry Pinkard’ın “Hegel” adlı eseri, bu önemli filozofun yaşam öyküsünü ve felsefesini, dönemin tarihsel, politik ve kültürel olaylarıyla paralel biçimde, bir bütün olarak ele almaya gayret eden, etkileyici ve bilgilendirici bir biyografi.
Hegel'le, çağdaşlarıyla mücadele eden, geçim sıkıntısı çeken bir aile babası, entelektüel ve akademisyen olarak tanışmamıza imkân veren eser hem akademik hem de edebi bir titizlikle aktarılan kavramları da (artık kavrayabildiğimiz kadarıyla) anlamamızı sağlıyor.
Pinkard’ın bu özel çalışmasını, Hegel, felsefesi ve dönemin gelişmelerini merak eden ve başlangıç yapacak bir yer arayan tüm yetişkin okurlara öneririm.
Hegel'le, çağdaşlarıyla mücadele eden, geçim sıkıntısı çeken bir aile babası, entelektüel ve akademisyen olarak tanışmamıza imkân veren eser hem akademik hem de edebi bir titizlikle aktarılan kavramları da (artık kavrayabildiğimiz kadarıyla) anlamamızı sağlıyor.
Pinkard’ın bu özel çalışmasını, Hegel, felsefesi ve dönemin gelişmelerini merak eden ve başlangıç yapacak bir yer arayan tüm yetişkin okurlara öneririm.
January 29, 2013
G. W. F. Hegel's philosophy, and the philosophies of those he influenced, especially Karl Marx, have been accused of obscurantism. Analytic and positivistic philosophers, such as A. J. Ayer, Bertrand Russell, and the critical-rationalist Karl Popper, accused Hegel and Hegelianism of being obscure. About Hegel’s philosophy, Arthur Schopenhauer wrote that it is: ". . . a colossal piece of mystification, which will yet provide posterity with an inexhaustible theme for laughter at our times, that it is a pseudo-philosophy paralyzing all mental powers, stifling all real thinking, and, by the most outrageous misuse of language, putting in its place the hollowest, most senseless, thoughtless, and, as is confirmed by its success, most stupefying verbiage.."
Nevertheless, biographer Terry Pinkard in this book notes "Hegel has refused to go away, even in analytic philosophy, itself." Hegel was aware of his obscurantism, and perceived it as part of philosophical thinking — to accept and transcend the limitations of quotidian thought and its concepts. In the essay "Who Thinks Abstractly?", he said that it is not the philosopher who thinks abstractly, but the layman, who uses concepts as givens that are immutable, without context. It is the philosopher who thinks concretely, because he transcends the limits of quotidian concepts, in order to understand their broader context. This makes philosophical thought and language appear obscure, esoteric, and mysterious to the layman.
Nevertheless, biographer Terry Pinkard in this book notes "Hegel has refused to go away, even in analytic philosophy, itself." Hegel was aware of his obscurantism, and perceived it as part of philosophical thinking — to accept and transcend the limitations of quotidian thought and its concepts. In the essay "Who Thinks Abstractly?", he said that it is not the philosopher who thinks abstractly, but the layman, who uses concepts as givens that are immutable, without context. It is the philosopher who thinks concretely, because he transcends the limits of quotidian concepts, in order to understand their broader context. This makes philosophical thought and language appear obscure, esoteric, and mysterious to the layman.
September 23, 2015
Instrumental in my evolution from oil painting to...
I would reference this book throughout grad school and I read it as an undergrad. What I specifically like about this book among the other Hegel books is Pinkard's way of translating the unintelligible gobbeldy-gook into something I can digest. Hegel is the last platform from which the contemporary artist takes that leap into her own right while leaving the past behind. Real art is the making, not the made.
I would reference this book throughout grad school and I read it as an undergrad. What I specifically like about this book among the other Hegel books is Pinkard's way of translating the unintelligible gobbeldy-gook into something I can digest. Hegel is the last platform from which the contemporary artist takes that leap into her own right while leaving the past behind. Real art is the making, not the made.
January 26, 2012
It was everything it promised to be, a thorough overview of Hegel's life and a clear overview of his thoughts, work and influence. I found it inspiring and helping to overcome to bridge to go and read Hegel himself. I already made a start in his Philosophy of Right, which I hope is going to be the subject of my bachelor thesis.
December 20, 2012
Terry Pinkard'ın İş Bankası yayınlarından çıkan Hegel biyografisini okumayı bitirdim. Kitabı beğendim. Kant biyografisinden daha başarılı. Olanla anlatılan farkı hep vardır ama bu kitap bu farkı az tuttuğu kanısını uyandırdı bende. Bir de özellikle yaşantılara daha ılımlı ve taraftarlıktan uzak bakmak gereğini hissetmeme yol açtı. Okumam iyi oldu diyeyim.
April 16, 2020
An amazing work of scholarship that comes from a philosopher's point of view and yet ably weaves in the historical and biographical background. Highly recommended, but at its heft its not for the casual reader.
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August 4, 2014working on it....
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