2. Influence
Hegel developed a massive and comprehensive system of philosophy. Absolute Philosophy as influential among German people but it was also taken up with changes. Marx incorporated a number of Hegelian concepts into his own position, although Marx himself was a materialist as opposed to an idealist. The Hegelian dialectic has been extremely influential. The Phenomenology of Spirit is a seminal work in Phenomenology as a philosophical movement. He contributed significantly to the development of speculative philosophy of history. By relying upon culture and history as a necessary context for grasping knowledge in consciousness, Hegel helped lay a foundation for development of the social sciences. Absolute Philosophy was obscure enough to evoke a reaction that encouraged development of positivism and ordinary language in the 20th century.
3. Reading Hegel
The Phenomenology of Mind and The Science of Logic are especially difficult reading. This makes Hegel one of the great challenges to anyone trying to read western philosophy. Many philosophers deal with the challenge by ignoring him and this is something that we are said to do at our own peril according to Jacob Loewenberg, editor of Hegel’s writings. There are three approaches to Hegel:
1. Look for individual passages that reveal Hegel’s great insights such as the master-servant relationship, stoicism, skepticism, the unhappy consciousness, natural religion, and revealed religion.
2. Grasp Hegel’s work as a system so that you do not miss the forest for the trees. Do not however, focus upon every detail of the system since Hegel himself was never precise enough or clear enough or cogent enough to render the system intelligible in every detail.
3. Grasp Hegel’s work as a system and master all of the details.
It seems that the preferable approach to understanding Hegel is found in 2. If you do not grasp Hegel’s philosophy as a system, you are missing too much of what is essential to Hegel’s though. Ruth lies in the whole that is, the system for Hegel. On the other hand, the connections and transitions that he makes within his system are often questionable and the obscurity of many passages defies clear interpretation and thus may not always be worth the effort or examining every detail in Hegel’s system.
