Hegel was not a modest man. He claimed that he understood all of philosophy and history. Like Spinoza he thought that God and the universe were inseparable. It is difficult to describe Hegel's philosophy simply, because it isn't simple.
It is a huge, all-embracing system that moves through history like a giant snowball, gathering the best from every era, forever expanding human knowledge. Eventually it will arrive at the ultimate truth - God. Hegel disagreed with Kant, who said it was beyond human reason to understand God. He said:
"All knowledge is
HUMAN
KNOWLEDGE"
The basis of Hegel's system is a continuing process of argument, which goes on and on until it arrives at the ultimate revelation. He saw history as humanity's path to self-discovery, and he singled out "world spirits", such as Julius Caesar, who brought in each new era.
Hegel was born in Stuttgart. At this time, Germany was a loose collection of independent states, which were run on the feudal system of serf and master. When Hegel was 36 and a professor, Napoleon conquered Germany. Hegel saw him as the new "world spirit", even though the university was closed and he worked on a newspaper for a year.
Hegel's plodding style earned him the title "the old man" - even as a young one. His lectures could never be describes as scintillating. Nevertheless his reputation spread far and wide, many came to listen to him. They were happy to suffer his lumbering, humourless delivery just to be able to bathe in his genius. But Hegel wasn't a stuffed shirt with the ladies. In fact he was thrown out of his lodgings for dallying with his landlord's wife. In his forties he settled down with a wife half his age. They had two children and lived happily until Hegel fell ill with cholera. He died aged 61 at the height of his fame.
Karl Marx adopted some of Hegel's ideas as a basis for a new political system known as Marxism.
"Napoleon is the best thing for Europe"
He said that people will eventually know everything in the process of history.
Hegel said that leaders like Julius Caesar change the course of history.
When he was not writing books Hegel loved to play cards
