Hegel Today • Hacker News Board

Re: Hegel Today

#51

Post by Regular-Former » Tue, Nov 02, 2021, 12:05 AM UTC

heyhegalhey wrote: post #49

Can anyone recommend a book that makes Hegel actually legible and not completely bonkers to extract what he's saying? I think it's possible he needs to be read in German. Reading and breaking down The Phenomenology of Spirit should be used as a torture method. Here is just one random passage of The Phenomenology of Spirit, it's all like this: The distinction which was made between actual Spirit and Spirit that knows…

Take a look at Frederick Beiser's works on Hegel & German Idealism overall, as he's very clear and competent about this whole period of German philosophy:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_C._Beiser#Works

Also, it's much easier to start with Hegel's lectures (on aesthetics, history, religion etc.) and just go read the Phenomenology & Science of Logic after one has a sense of his style and general philosophy. It's foolish to start by the most difficult texts.

And don't take Schopenhauer's criticisms of Hegel too seriously, as they are mostly due to personal misgivings and envy (Sch. couldn't stand Hegel's popularity, while Sch. barely managed to get any students for his classes).

Re: Hegel Today

#52

Post by TeeMassive » Tue, Nov 02, 2021, 1:07 AM UTC

atoav wrote: post #41

stewbrew wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why?

Focoult moved into poststructuralism, a school of thought which was sceptical of clear explainations (they had very valid reasons for this in my eyes). This means poststructuralist texts can be extremely hard to read and understand, especially to non-philosophically trained people or those hoping to get a logical theory about the world instead of a multi-facetted view onto some phenomenom within it. That doesn't mean…

Even as a native French speaker who is used to read obtuse political books from French intellectuals of the last century I find him absolutely abhorrent to read.

My main complain is that he ascribed to the notion that it is more important to have the "right" political impact than to seek the truth. That and the fact that he was a pedophile, but I digress.

Re: Hegel Today

#53

Post by heyhegalhey » Tue, Nov 02, 2021, 5:32 PM UTC

Regular-Former wrote: post #51

heyhegalhey wrote: post #49

Can anyone recommend a book that makes Hegel actually legible and not completely bonkers to extract what he's saying? I think it's possible he needs to be read in German. Reading and breaking down The Phenomenology of Spirit should be used as a torture method. Here is just one random passage of The Phenomenology of Spirit, it's all like this: The distinction which was made between actual Spirit and Spirit that knows…

Take a look at Frederick Beiser's works on Hegel & German Idealism overall, as he's very clear and competent about this whole period of German philosophy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_C._Beiser#Works Also, it's much easier to start with Hegel's lectures (on aesthetics, history, religion etc.) and just go read the Phenomenology & Science of Logic after one has a sense of his style and general philosophy. It…

Thank you for the rec I'll check them out. It's true Schopenhauer didn't have as many students at his lectures because Hegel was a celebrity at the time. That doesn't take away from his criticisms I still think they stand.

I don't believe in bombastic word vomit, especially when that person deliberately chose to make his prose more incomprehensible.