CU Course on Hegel,
Part 1b
Hegel’s Introduction to the Encyclopaedia
Hegel’s “Encyclopaedia” is the collection of his printed
lectures, begun relatively early in his career and enlarged and reorganised as
time went on. This “Introduction to the
Encyclopaedia” (download linked below) is dated 1830, one year before
Hegel’s death.
The Contents of the
Encyclopaedia is grouped into Preliminary
- Logic - Nature – Spirit.
“Logic” in these Contents is divided into Logic Defined – Being – Essence – Notion.
There is a list of Hegel’s Works on Marxists Internet
Archive. Clearly Hegel’s works can be organised and presented in different
ways. Let us not be in too much haste to grab at it all.
Hegel himself is ultra-cautious. His Introduction to the
Encyclopaedia begins with repeated strictures against people taking anything
for granted. Hegel does not want people to try looking for short cuts. He does
not want to be misunderstood, or misrepresented. Unfortunately, Hegel turns out
(mercifully to him, after his death) to have become one of the most badly
misrepresented philosophers in history. We will look at some of the false
“Myths and Legends” that surround Hegel’s work like devilish sentries in the
next part of this course.
In the last passage of the “Introduction to the
Encyclopaedia”, §18, Hegel says:
“As the whole science,
and only the whole, can exhibit what the Idea or system of reason is, it is
impossible to give in a preliminary way a general impression of a philosophy.
Nor can a division of philosophy into its parts be intelligible, except in
connection with the system. A preliminary division, like the limited conception
from which it comes, can only be an anticipation.”
In the beginning, §1,
he writes:
“We can assume nothing
and assert nothing dogmatically; nor can we accept the assertions and
assumptions of others. And yet we must make a beginning: and a beginning, as
primary and underived, makes an assumption, or rather is an assumption. It
seems as if it were impossible to make a beginning at all.”
In §16, Hegel
even manages to discount the entire Encyclopaedia, vast as it is, thus:
“In the form of an
Encyclopaedia, the science has no room for a detailed exposition of
particulars, and must be limited to setting forth the commencement of the
special sciences and the notions of cardinal importance in them.”
All of this is to say: Wait. I will show you. Don’t even
anticipate. Be patient.
Of course, this is at the very moment when he is presenting
an introduction to a collection of his lectures, which any student is bound to
take as a summary of his work. Students should and must seek out such
summaries, lists of contents and short versions, so that they can begin to
conceive of the outline of the whole work, and get some idea of what its
conclusions are intended to be.
But indeed, Hegel is a good example of one whose message is
new and different and which must therefore struggle uphill against peoples’
desire to be told only what they already know, and against their resentment at
being pushed towards relinquishing their long-held prejudices. Hegel’s
weariness of a lifetime of uphill struggle comes through when he writes, at the
end of §3:
“One consequence of this weakness is that
authors, preachers, and orators are found most intelligible, when they speak of
things which their readers or hearers already know by rote - things which the
latter are conversant with, and which require no explanation.”
In §6, Hegel
discusses, from this point of view, one of his most famous sayings, often
written (in English): “All that is rational is real, and all that is real is
rational”. This is a useful first mention of this very characteristic Hegelism
from Hegel’s own pen, and set within some pages of his prose which are not
impossible to read.
Hence, this Introduction will serve well enough as our first
taste of Hegel’s own writing.
- Image: Hegel and his students
- The above is to introduce the original reading-text: Introduction to the Encyclopaedia, Hegel, 1830.
- To download any of the CU courses in PDF files please click here.
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