The First Systematic Attempt to Conceptualize the Critique of Culture

Abstract

Hegel’s writings from the Jena period present the reader, whether student or scholar, with a complex assortment of writings that vary considerably in the degree to which they have been edited: short fragments in which Hegel sketches a plan for an article or lecture; summaries of works he has read and intends to refer to later; notes for seminars or lectures at the University of Jena; and polished works that Hegel edited and published — mainly articles that appeared in the journal he put out together with Schelling, the Critical Journal of Philosophy.¹ The latter, which have long been accessible to Hegel scholars, have been taken to represent Hegel’s philosophical thinking during this period, but offer only a partial picture of his philosophical intentions and nascent projects. Now that the former materials have received scholarly attention, a fuller picture has begun to emerge, a picture that reveals Hegel’s first attempt to construct a methodical philosophical system.