Hegel: A Biography (review)

Having already made an important contribution to Hegel scholarship with his book, Hegel's Phenomenology: The Sociality of Reason, Terry Pinkard has now published an outstanding biography of the great nineteenth century thinker. Pinkard explains extraordinarily well the complicated philosophical and social contexts in which Hegel's philosophy arose and sheds abundant light on Hegel's personality, life, family, and times. This book validates the very idea of the "sociality of reason," by revealing that Hegel's ideas were shaped by his effort both to understand and to influence the contours of a fledgling modernity. Philosophers who may have been put off either by Hegel's philosophy, or else by the obscure rhetoric in which it is often couched, may give Hegel a second chance if they read this rewarding book.

The text begins with a detailed account of Hegel's early life and family, including his familial status within the highly stratified society of the duchy of Württenberg. Pinkard's account of late eighteenth century German politics, including the role played by "estates" in social organization, greatly clarifies issues involved in Hegel's effort to reconcile the benefits of local particularism with those of Enlightenment universalism. Pinkard goes on to provide fascinating details about Hegel's life and personality as he traveled the long and frustrating road to a university professorship at Heidelberg, which he did not attain until 1816, when he was forty six. We learn of Hegel's love for good wine, social gatherings, card playing, opera, and theater. It was during a very busy seven year period (1809-1816), when he was rector of a gymnasium in Nuremberg, that Hegel wrote his Logic. The conservative politics, customs, and educational practices of Roman Catholic Bavaria grated on Hegel, who clearly preferred the political progressiveness of his own (thoroughly modernized) version of Lutheranism. Plagued throughout his career by stuttering and other symptoms of nervousness while lecturing, Hegel's fame grew so great in Berlin that his students regarded such symptoms as evidence of the great thinker's struggle with difficult concepts.

Pinkard's book also offers an invaluable account of Hegel's relationships—both intellectual and personal, friendly and disputational—with the leading intellectuals of early nineteenth century Germany, including Hölderlin, Fichte, Schelling, Goethe, Schleiermacher, and many others. Pinkard succeeds brilliantly in explaining not only the philosophical debates of the day, including the rise of and resistance to German idealism, but also how Hegel positioned his own thought in relation to that of his contemporaries. The book recounts complex debates that took place among authors now long forgotten, but who were at the time important, especially to the young Hegel, who was trying to establish himself professionally. Pinkard's excellent summaries of Hegel's major works, ranging from the Phenomenology to the late lectures on religion, reveal how they relate to the philosophical, cultural, social, political, and economic issues of the era. By closely examining Hegel's letters and unpublished works, and by scrutinizing remarks made about him by his contemporaries, Pinkard shows how strongly Hegel yearned to make a difference in the formation of the modern world.

In addition to these and many other notable accomplishments, Pinkard's book also examines the various legends connected with Hegel's life. It was a letter written by Hegel himself that helped to establish the myth that while completing the Phenomenology of Spirit, Hegel could hear the thunder of cannons while Napoleon advanced on Jena. In fact, the book had been substantially completed two weeks earlier (see 228-229). Hegel did in fact father a son out of wedlock, but later formally adopted the boy, who unfortunately never felt fully integrated into the family. Moreover, Hegel's own deeds, not merely his philosophical position in The Philosophy of Right, helped to earn for him the reputation of supporting the conservative views of the Prussian state. For instance, going...