Georg Hegel: Extremely influential yet almost impossible to understand

Hegel’s aim was nothing less than to develop the conceptual apparatus necessary to understand the whole of reality

Hegel is arguably the last great system builder in philosophy (Getty)

Georg Hegel (1770–1831) occupies a rather strange position in the history of philosophical thought: he is both extremely influential and almost impossible for a non-specialist to understand.

Two of Hegel’s most important works, The Phenomenology of Spirit and The Science of Logic, contain some of the most difficult philosophical writing which has yet appeared. Indeed, the impenetrability of his prose has led some people to suspect that he was a charlatan; that he deliberately obfuscated in order to create the appearance of profundity where, in fact, none existed.

However, this is to be uncharitable; Hegel’s is a systematic philosophy – indeed, he is arguably the last great system builder in philosophy – and at least some of the difficulty of his work is linked to the magnitude of the task he set himself. His aim was nothing less than to develop the conceptual apparatus necessary to understand the whole of reality, or, as he called it, Absolute Spirit. But even so, close reading of his work will eventually bear fruit; certainly it is possible for readers without a background in philosophy to get something from texts like Lectures on the Philosophy of History and The Philosophy of Right.