Vieweg Klaus. Hegel: The Philosopher of Freedom

Stanford University Press, 2023. — 582 p. — ISBN 9781503635678.A monumental new biography of a pivotal yet poorly understood pioneer in modern philosophy.When a painter once told Goethe that he wanted to paint the most celebrated man of the age, Goethe directed him to Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel worked from the credo: To philosophize is to learn to live freely. While he was slow and cautious in the development of his philosophy, his intellectual growth was like an odyssey of the mind, and, contrary to popular belief, his life was full of twists and turns, suspense and even danger.In this landmark biography, the philosopher Klaus Vieweg paints a new picture of the life and work of the most important representative of German idealism. His vivid portrait provides readers an intimate account of Hegel's times and the milieu in which he developed his thought, along with detailed, clear-sighted analyses of Hegel's four major works. What results is a new interpretation of Hegel through the lens of reason and freedom.Vieweg draws on extensive archival research that has brought to light a wealth of hitherto undiscovered documents and handwritten notes relating to Hegel's work, touching on Hegel's engagement with the leading thinkers and writers of his age: Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hölderlin, and others. Combatting clichés and misunderstandings about Hegel, Vieweg also offers a sustained defense of the philosopher's more progressive impulses. Highly praised upon its release in Germany as having set the new biographical standard, this monumental work emphasizes Hegel's relevance for today, depicting him as a vital figure in the history of philosophy.Introduction. To Philosophize Is to Think Freely, to Learn to Live Freely
The Beloved Hometown: Growing Up in Stuttgart, 1770–1788
A Student at the Protestant Seminary: Tübingen, 1788–1793
A Private Tutor of a Patrician Family: Switzerland, 1793–1796
From a Mosaic of Fragments to the Cornerstone of a System: Frankfurt, 1797–1800
The Birth of Absolute Idealism: Jena 1801–1807
The Political Journalist: Bamberg, 1807–1808
The First Humanistic Gymnasium and the Science of Logic: Nuremberg, 1808–1816
The Owl of Minerva on the Neckar: Heidelberg, 1816–1818
The “Great Center”: Becoming World-Famous in Berlin, 1818–1831