Week 11 – Hegel's Encyclopedic System


As we’ve seen thus far, systematicity is a central aspect of German Idealism. Hegel exemplifies this insofar as he articulates in the Phenomenology an overall conception of a system of philosophy. We’ll read the preface from the Phenomenology as well as excerpts from the Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences in Basic Outline. Our aim will be to get a basic sense of his overall view of the system of philosophy, the structure of metaphysics, and the progression to “absolute knowing”. We’ll also contrast this with Kant’s conception of a system of philosophy, and discuss more generally systematicity as an aim of German Idealism.

Readings