G.W.F. Hegel

Abstract

Writing in 1946, Merleau-Ponty declared that “all the great philosophical ideas of the past century — the philosophies of Marx and Nietzsche, phenomenology, German existentialism, and psychoanalysis — had their beginnings in Hegel.” (Merleau-Ponty, “Hegel’s Existentialism”, p. 63) Although this is in some respects an exaggeration, Merleau-Ponty’s assessment is nonetheless broadly speaking correct, and indeed some other schools of thought, such as critical theory, could perhaps be added to the list. Hegel’s work provides the background against which the major developments in European ideas since 1831 have emerged, and for many of the philosophers to be discussed in this book, only once they had come to terms with Hegel could their own thinking begin. Furthermore, as Merleau-Ponty observes, “interpreting Hegel means taking a stand on all the philosophical, political, and religious problems of our century”, for often the central debates within post-Hegelian continental philosophy have been couched in terms of competing readings of his work. Hegel is therefore a good place to start for two reasons: firstly, because he decisively influenced the thinking of those who came after him, if only negatively, and secondly because so much European philosophy has been written by developing different aspects of his thought, and by providing competing approaches to problems in his terms.