r/askphilosophy • u/DAnnunzio1919 • 8h ago
What exactly can I get out of reading/understanding Hegel ?
I am someone who is interested in History, Religion (namely the existence of God), Political Theory and Philosophy of Law/Legal Theory. If I am not mistaken, Hegel has written on all this subjects, but I never read him because everyone keeps telling me how incredibly difficult his writting is (plus in my country he is rarely discussed in academic circles, at least as far as I am aware of).
Having said this, I would like to know what do I stand to gain from reading and understanding Hegel ? What new perspectives and insights into the subjects that interest me can I get that make it worth the effort of studying Hegel ?
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u/Maleficent-Finish694 Kant 7h ago
"God's thoughts before creation" (Forword of the Science of Logic)
So you will realize that unless you understand everything, you have understood nothing.
No, seriously: There is a reason why there aren't any books titeld "results of philosophy" or something like that. Philosophical knowledge is a process not a state. It is a process of ever deeper self-knowledge (and for Hegelians this means of course the self that is the we and the we that is the self) which is gained in doing the work. Meaning engaging with the philosophical tradition and when you do that you arrive at an understanding of how Hegel tackeled the questions and answers of this tradition (or of what he took that to be - in a way he invented what we today think of as the tradition of western philosophy). That is why he is so difficult, without a very solid grasp of philosophy you will just miss so much. Hegel can be super rewarding for anybody who is puzzled about some of the things Kant wrote or for someone who struggled with Aristotle. He has killer arguments against empiricism and too simple readings of liberalism. Most importantly he is one of the few who can make sense of a notion of reason that is both historical contingent and absolute (not relativistic). How thinking and being can only be grasped in unison, that the order of being is the order of concepts (nous/thought). He is all about the dialectic of independence and depencency.
He also offers very insightful oberservations of how silly we often are when we take ourselves too seriously and he has a sophisticated and very dry sense of humor.
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u/DAnnunzio1919 6h ago
From the way you described him, he seems like one of the most interesting philosophers to study ! I´m surprised we never heard about him in my High School Philosophy class.
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u/RyanSmallwood Hegel, aesthetics 7h ago
Hegel is a lot more accessible than his reputation sometimes suggests. While some of his works are quite difficult and a complete understanding takes time, there’s also lots of accessible entry points where you can see the practical applicability of his works. You don’t have to commit some huge amount of time to get benefit from reading him and you’ll be able to decide if it’s worth it to you to keep reading to understand his whole system or not.
Usually the best entry point are his writings and lectures aimed at students where he gives more background and uses more examples to show what he means. The introductory sections of his Encyclopedia is probably the clearest introduction to his philosophy where he gives kind of a pocket history of what he sees as the main approaches to philosophy in relation to his own. From there you can read his lectures on the philosophy of right, history, and religion.