I’ve read a fair bit of philosophy and Hegel is the first time I’ve felt like the stereotype of philosophers, where they’re being deliberately obscure to hide the fact that their arguments don’t actually follow, might actually apply.
Now, most likely, I’m just being stupid, so I was wondering if anyone here actually got anything much out of Hegel and, if so, what?
I’m most of the way through the Phenomenology of Spirit, if that’s any help.
Reading phenomenologists without a guide or instructor is a recipe for frustration. They are very dense and the German language’s ability to create new words by mashing existing words together does not help.
Back when I was a philosophy major I found the Stanford website to be really helpful for getting orientated prior to reading the actual text. Phenomenology, like many schools of philosophy, is a response to the philosophy that came before it, so it’s important to understand the context that Hegel is writing in.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hegel/
The nothing itself nothings.