Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (1770–1831)
German philosopher
Most famous for his development of the idea of the
DIALECTIC, which he learned from Eastern mysticism
and religion, that posits that all reality is made up of
opposites (day/night; light/dark; freedom/authority;
etc.). Hegel’s dialectical view of society leads to both
MARXIST COMMUNISMand state FASCISM. In Hegel’s main
political book The Philosophy of Right (1821), the
dialectic occurs in three social “moments” or institu-
tions: the family, CIVIL SOCIETY, and the STATE. The fam-
ily is a unit of primitive or natural unselfish altruism
as the individual identifies with its interests and sacri-
fices for it. Civil society is the competitive economic
realm where individuals have to look after themselves,
are self-interested, and are antagonistic to others. The
state is to be a unity that subsumes differing interests
into one totality, serving the universal national good
and producing real FREEDOM. This organic state “syn-
thesizes” other family, business, and class antagonism,
producing the CITIZENSHIP that transcends religion,
class, and region. The ideal government, for Hegel,
would be an assembly of estates (classes, groups, cor-
porations), a professional civil service, and a limited
MONARCHY. For him, history moves dialectically
toward this ideal state and the consciousness of free-
dom. Examples of this historical development
include: (1) the Oriental world, in which one (ruler)
was free but all others were unfree; (2) the CLASSICAL
world, in which a few were free, but most were
unfree; and (3) the Germanic world in which through
universal citizenship all are free. This universal free-
dom was advancing through democratic movements
and PROTESTANT CHRISTIANITY. Hegel extolled the
French Revolution, Napoleon, the English PARLIAMENT,
and German nationalism as signs of this social
progress.
Hegel, whose writings are extremely obscure and
difficult to comprehend, taught philosophy at the uni-
versities of Heidelberg and Berlin.
Further Readings
Avineri, S. Hegel’s Theory of the Modern State.New York: Cam-
bridge University Press, 1972.
Harris, H. S. Hegel’s Development.Oxford, Eng.: Clarendon
Press, 1972.
Shklar, J. N. Freedom and Independence: A Study of the Political
Ideas of Hegels’ Phenomenology of Mind.Cambridge, Eng.:
Cambridge University Press, 1976.
Taylor, C. Hegel. Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University
Press, 1975.
Heidegger, Martin (1889–1976) German phi-
losopher
Heidegger was born and died in the town of
Messkirch, in the Black Forest region of Germany.
Raised as a CATHOLIC, he attended a Jesuit seminary
and spent a brief period as a Jesuit novice. He later
studied philosophy at the University of Freiburg and
received his doctorate for a thesis on the medieval
philosopher Johannes DUNS SCOTUS. Heidegger taught
at Freiburg from 1916 to 1923 and then spent the next
four years at the University of Marburg before return-
ing to Freiburg to assume the chair of philosophy on
the retirement of Edmund Husserl. Hannah ARENDT
and Herbert MARCUSEwere students of Heidegger.
While at Marburg, Heidegger published his most
famous work, Being and Time (1927) in which he
offered a phenomenological analysis of human exis-
tence, which for Heidegger was the means for address-
ing the metaphysical question of “the meaning of
Being.” According to Heidegger, the world is not
simply an array of objects against which we are set as
individual thinking subjects; rather, we are “beings-in-
the-world” insofar as we inhabit and engage with a
worldly environment that provides the conditions for a
meaningful existence. Heidegger argued that we find
ourselves “thrown” into the world and that our hu-
man reality is shaped by the various ways that we
encounter and question our mode of Being. We can
live “inauthentically” by ignoring our individual-
ity and becoming part of the “they,” or crowd, and
its conformist conventions, or we can live “authen-
tically” by assuming responsibility for our indivi-
dual choices and actions, thereby understanding that
we give meaning and value to our lives. Because
of Heidegger’s philosophy of being, he is often, though
controversially, regarded as a proponent of EXISTEN-
TIALISM.
Still more controversial is Heidegger’s relationship
to politics. In 1933 he was appointed rector of the
University of Freiburg by the NAZIgovernment. In his
inaugural address as rector, Heidegger stated that
“‘Academic Freedom’... is banished from the Ger-
man university,” and in an article in the student news-
paper later that year he wrote “The Führer himself,
and only he, is the current and future reality of Ger-
many, and his word is your law.” Heidegger’s early
enthusiasm for national socialism apparently abated,
however, and he resigned the rectorship in 1934. Nev-
ertheless, Heidegger was not permitted to teach in134 Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich