"As an introduction to his own notoriously complex and challenging philosophy, Hegel recommended the sections on phenomenology and psychology from the Philosophy of Spirit, the third part of his Encyclopaedia of the Philosophic Sciences. These offered the best introduction to his philosophic system ... [This book] makes it possible for the modern reader to approach the philosopher's work as he himself sugggested. The book includes a fresh translation of "Phenomenology" and "Psychology," an extensive section-by-section commentary, and a sketch of the system to which this work is an introduction."--Provided by publisher.

"It provides an account of the criticism of religion by key Enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire, Lessing, Hume, and Kant. This is followed by an analysis of how the Romantic thinkers, such as Rousseau, Jacobi, and Schleiermacher, responded to these challenges. For Hegel, the views of these thinkers from both the Enlightenment and Romanticism tended to empty religion of its content. The goal that he sets for his own philosophy of religion is to restore this lost content. " -- back cover.

For Hegel, thought is not philosophical if it is not also religious. Both religion and philosophy have a common object and share the same content, for both are concerned with the inherent unity of all things. Hegel’s doctrine of God provides the means for understanding this fundamental relationship. Although Hegel stated that God is absolute Spirit and Christianity is the absolute religion, the compatibility of Hegel’s doctrine of God with Christian theology has been a matter of continuing and closely argued debate. Williamson’s book provides a significant contribution to this ongoing discussion through a systematic study of Hegel’s concept of God. The book proceeds by investigating theism, atheism, pantheism, and panentheism as descriptions of Hegel’s concept. It rejects the view that Hegel’s doctrine so differs from Christian theology so as to be empty of religious content and thereby highlights some important considerations in contemporary theology.

Although Hegel considered Science of Logic essential to his philosophy, it has received scant commentary compared with the other three books he published in his lifetime. Here philosopher Stanley Rosen rescues the Science of Logic from obscurity, arguing that its neglect is responsible for contemporary philosophy’s fracture into many different and opposed schools of thought. Through deep and careful analysis, Rosen sheds new light on the precise problems that animate Hegel’s overlooked book and their tremendous significance to philosophical conceptions of logic and reason. Rosen’s overarching question is how, if at all, rationalism can overcome the split between monism and dualism. Monism—which claims a singular essence for all things—ultimately leads to nihilism, while dualism, which claims multiple, irreducible essences, leads to what Rosen calls “the endless chatter of the history of philosophy.” The Science of Logic, he argues, is the fundamental text to offer a new conception of rationalism that might overcome this philosophical split. Leading readers through Hegel’s book from beginning to end, Rosen’s argument culminates in a masterful chapter on the Idea in Hegel. By fully appreciating the Science of Logic and situating it properly within Hegel’s oeuvre, Rosen in turn provides new tools for wrangling with the conceptual puzzles that have brought so many other philosophers to disaster.

In Hegel’s Idea of the Good Life, Joshua D. Goldstein presents the first book-length study of the development and meaning of Hegel’s account of human flourishing. This volume will be welcomed by philosophers and political theorists seeking to engage with the details of Hegel’s early and mature social thought. By bringing Hegel’s earliest writings into dialogue with his Philosophy of Right, Goldstein argues that Hegel’s mature political philosophy should be understood as a response to his youthful failure to build a sustainable account of the good life upon the foundations of ancient virtue. This study reveals how Hegel’s mature response integrates ancient concerns for the well-ordered life and modern concerns for autonomy in a new, robust conception of selfhood that can be actualized across the full expanse of the modern political community.

Continuum's Guides for the Perplexed are clear, concise and accessible introductions to thinkers, writers and subjects that students and readers can find especially challenging. Concentrating specifically on what it is that makes the subject difficult to fathom, these books explain and explore key themes and ideas, guiding the reader towards a thorough understanding of demanding material. George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel is a philosopher of major and enduring influence. The author of The Phenomenology of Spirit and Foundations of the Philosophy of Right, cornerstones of the philosophical canon, he will be encountered by anyone studying or interested in Western philosophy. Hegel: A Guide for the Perplexed offers an invaluable introduction to Hegel's thought. David James employs the concept of freedom to offer a unified account of the most important parts of his philosophical system: his theory of intersubjectivity; his theory of the modern state; his accounts of art and religion; and his idea of a speculative logic. This accessible but authoritative text places Hegel in an historical context, exploring his engagement with thinkers including Fichte, Jacobi and Rousseau. This is a comprehensive and coherent introduction, ideal for anyone studying this fascinating thinker.

This volume brings together for the first time some of the world’s leading authorities on the German mystic Jacob Boehme, to illuminate his thought and its reception over four centuries for the benefit of students and advanced scholars alike. Boehme’s theosophical works have influenced Western culture in profound ways since their dissemination in the early 17th Century, and these interdisciplinary essays trace the social and cultural networks as well as the intellectual pathways involved in Boehme’s enduring impact. The chapters range from situating Boehme in the 16th Century Radical Reformation, to discussions of his significance in modern theology. They explore the major contexts for Boehme’s reception including the Pietist movement, Russian religious thought and Western esotericism, as well as focusing more closely on important readers: the religious radicals of the English Civil Wars and the later English Behmenists; literary figures such as Goethe and Blake, and great philosophers of the modern age, among them Schelling and Hegel. Together, the chapters illustrate the depth and variety of Boehme’s influence and a concluding chapter addresses directly an underlying theme of the volume – asking why Boehme matters today, and how readers in the present might be enriched by a fresh engagement with his apparently opaque and complex writings.

This volume approaches the study of Hegel's History of Philosophy from a variety of angles, while centering on Hegel's Berlin "Lectures on the History of Philosophy" (1819–1831), which were given to students and later published. The lectures address most fundamentally what philosophy is—the philosophy of philosophy, so to speak. The contributors treat many significant and topical issues, including: discussions of Hegel's overall idea of a history of philosophy; his treatment of various philosophers and philosophical views from the historical tradition; and the role of Hegel's own philosophical system as a culmination in the development of philosophy historically. This unique collection provides incisive and provocative analyses on an area of study that until now has not garnered as much attention as it deserves.

Jean Hyppolite produced the first French translation of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. His major works—the translation, his commentary, and Logique et existence (1953)—coincided with an upsurge of interest in Hegel following World War II. Yet Hyppolite's influence was as much due to his role as a teacher as it was to his translation or commentary: Foucault and Deleuze were introduced to Hegel in Hyppolite's classes, and Derrida studied under him. More than fifty years after its original publication, Hyppolite's analysis of Hegel continues to offer fresh insights to the reader.

The first anthology explicitly dedicated to Hegel's linguistic thought, Hegel and Language presents various facets of a new wave of Hegel scholarship. The chapters are organized around themes that include the possibility of systematic philosophy, truth and objectivity, and the relation of Hegel's thought to analytic and postmodern approaches to language. While there is considerable diversity among the various approaches to and assessments of Hegel's linguistic thought, the volume as a whole demonstrates that not only was language central for Hegel, but also that his linguistic thought still has much to offer contemporary philosophy. The book also includes an extensive introductory survey of the linguistic thought of the entire German Idealist movement and the contemporary issues that emerged from it.