I’ve read a fair bit of philosophy and Hegel is the first time I’ve felt like the stereotype of philosophers, where they’re being deliberately obscure to hide the fact that their arguments don’t actually follow, might actually apply.
Now, most likely, I’m just being stupid, so I was wondering if anyone here actually got anything much out of Hegel and, if so, what?
I’m most of the way through the Phenomenology of Spirit, if that’s any help.
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Hegel has often been described as a brilliant philosopher and mind yet terrible communicator/writer so you’re not alone. There’s some great videos out there that helped to clarify Hegel’s points that I would recommend seeking out. Heidegger is very similar in his writing style as far as density and obscurity. It took me a long time reading and re-reading Being and Time to make sense of it.
Reading phenomenologists without a guide or instructor is a recipe for frustration. They are very dense and the German language’s ability to create new words by mashing existing words together does not help.
Back when I was a philosophy major I found the Stanford website to be really helpful for getting orientated prior to reading the actual text. Phenomenology, like many schools of philosophy, is a response to the philosophy that came before it, so it’s important to understand the context that Hegel is writing in.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hegel/
The nothing itself nothings.
I second the Stanford recommendation, it’s really elucidated a lot of stuff for me
