After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the youth circulated a saying: "After that, no one cares whether you have read Hegel or not." ”
Although the words are very sad, they can be shown from the opposite side: Hegel has a fairly high status in the hearts of Westerners, which is roughly equivalent to our Wang Yangming. Chinese I don't know Hegel well, nor is it a bad thing to bite my teeth and stomp my feet, this time I just want to introduce this man to my friends.
Because his system of thought is too large and too profound, we will not talk about Hegel's great philosophy, but we will simply talk about Hegel's ordinary life, in short, this is a man who is quite interesting in the modern era.
Hegel was born on 27 August 1770 to a family of tax collectors in Stuttgart, Germany. According to today's words, his family is a typical middle-class family. So at that time, his family's house was the classic house of the middle class of society at that time: it was close to the city center, and the living environment was quite good. More than 200 years later, after great efforts, the house where Hegel lived was transformed into the "Hegel Memorial" to commemorate the "great son" of the city of Stuttgart.
Hegel was the eldest son in the family and had a close relationship with his mother. Under the guidance of Zhishu Dali's mother, Hegel showed a lively and cheerful, optimistic and positive attitude from an early age. Unfortunately, this kind mother died when Hegel was 13 years old.
Little Hegel's education began very early, entering a German school from the age of 3 and attending primary school at the age of 5 or 6. Whether from then or now, Hegel was a proper three-good student. He is bright and studious, not only is he excellent in all his homework, but he also reads a lot of books outside of class.
What's more, he even insisted on taking reading notes, often writing down his own reading feelings, and some of them were quite well-written. The 17th century was the era of the rise of Enlightenment thought, and Hegel was inevitably influenced. From the perspective of a teenager who did not enter the world, he strived to explore what was happening in society under the influence of the spirit of enlightenment.
Good study habits enabled Hegel in his youth to learn how to construct his own knowledge system, how to use data and control what he learned. This was a lifelong benefit for Hegel's growth.
On September 25, 1788, Hegel's secondary school career came to an end. As one of the five students who are about to go to the university for further study, he gave a speech on stage. In his speech, he made a profound reflection on the backwardness of the Ottoman Empire due to a lack of science and reason, and expressed his praise for the love of his homeland. After entering the university, Hegel turned a new page in the process of growing up.
He left his hometown and came alone to Tübingen, a small town in southern Germany. At the Theological Seminary in Tübingen, Hegel began his university life. The first year was uneventful, but the revolution that broke out in France the following year gave Hegel's life a little ripple.
During the Revolution, the city of Tübingen set up a special political club. Here one freely expresses one's views on the situation in Europe and on the fate of Germany. Hegel is said to be an active member of this group, and he often gives speeches to promote Enlightenment ideas. He also learned with his companions that the French had planted a tree of freedom.
From this, it can be seen that Hegel's political attitude at that time was radical and full of freedom, with a persistent pursuit of the concept of equality and justice. In the university era, Hegel took off the coat of the three good students of the middle school era, and he no longer followed the rules and only knew how to learn, but paid more attention to the independence and freedom of the personality. Here he was only interested in politics and current affairs, and dismissed any theological classes in the school. Therefore, although the intelligence review is always "excellent ability", the behavior comment has dropped to "good".
He hated the boring life of monasticism in school, so he often racked his brains to think about how to enjoy this time that should have been free. I heard that he often went out for a walk, or rode a horse, or went to a tavern for a few drinks. He was particularly fond of wine, but beer was acceptable; he also loved to play chess and play all kinds of cards.
Sometimes he was even drunk and had to be helped by his classmates to escape the teacher's examination. The youthful, restless Hegel also chased the daughter of a professor in college...
This is Hegel in his youth, from rules and regulations to freedom, full of passion at all times, full of novelty at all times.
Leaving the university doors, Hegel spent three years as a tutor in an aristocratic family in Switzerland. Perhaps by historical coincidence, both Kant and Fichte, who were also great philosophers, were also born as governesses. There Hegel taught only two children, one 9 years old and one just 6 years old. Bringing two children was a real breeze for Hegel, so he had a lot of free time.
During this period he read a large number of books, mainly philosophical readings. In his letters to friends he showed an interest in philosophy, especially Kant's preference for practical philosophy. "Over the course of time I began to re-embark on the study of Kant's philosophy in order to learn how to apply its important results to our common theories," he says. ”
In 1795, from May 9 to July 24, he wrote the biography of Jesus for more than two months. From then on, Hegel began to criticize and think about Christianity, and hoped to promote the role of religion in promoting morality.
Hegel also had a soft spot for politics, writing in a letter to a friend: "I have always had a preference for politics." There is indeed no falsehood in this statement, and Hegel cannot be said to be indifferent to politics. His last work before his death was about actual political reform. He criticized feudal despotism as well as oligarchy.
As early as 1789, he actively participated in the discussion of constitutionalism in his hometown. He personally wrote a leaflet for the democracy of his hometown, called "Wittenberg Parliament must be elected by the people", and only after persuasion from friends did he slightly change the radical name.
In 1800, he came to Jena, which he had longed for. At that time, it was under the jurisdiction of the Duchy of Weimar, and it happened that Goethe was here to assist the dukes in power, and Jena encountered an enlightened and tolerant cultural policy and ushered in unprecedented prosperity. So much so that it became the birthplace and center of activity of the German classicism and romantic movement at that time.
Hegel worked hard here in the hope of getting a position as a lecturer in philosophy at the university. It took him less than half a year to complete The Difference Between the Philosophical Systems of Fichte and Schelling. Not long after the book was finished, he participated in the defense of his application for professorship. On his 31st birthday, he was hired, which can be described as a double happiness.
By the time Hegel was approaching the age of incomprehension, he had already achieved success in his career and his ideas were constantly maturing. But years of work have made him forget that there is still a very important thing to do, that is, to start a family. He had been a drifting boat for so many years, and now he needed a haven that could shelter him from the wind and rain.
By this time, Hegel had withdrawn from the university and became the principal of a secondary school. But the principal, who can grasp the overall situation on the podium and is not shocked by honor and disgrace, has a little less confidence in his feelings. So he had to write a letter to ask a friend to help introduce him, and later met Miss Mary, who was 20 years younger than him.
Their wedding took place on September 15, 1811. After marriage, the philosopher felt a better life, on the one hand, a thriving career, and on the other hand, a lovely and knowledgeable wife. The philosophical well-being that Hegel pursued throughout his life has been found in his secular society.
Hegel was not only a great philosopher, but also a good man who was thrifty and thrifty. He personally managed the finances of the housekeeper and remembered every expenditure clearly. Engels once said: "Both Goethe and Hegel were Zeus on the Olympic Hill in their respective fields, but neither of them was free from the breath of a small German citizen." "I think that what Engels is talking about here about is the atmosphere of the small citizens, which may refer to the way of life of the two of them."
Simple, trivial, immersed in chai rice oil salt sauce vinegar tea, happy for the little surprises of life. The stable family life and the love of his wife made Hegel work enthusiastically. He eventually built an independent philosophical edifice that amazed countless people.
In 1826, at the age of 56, Hegel enjoyed the pleasures of the world. Whether it is a career or a family, it has been a good harvest. On his birthday, his friends celebrated him once. They went to the casino to have a good time, and Hegel played a card game similar to bridge so much that he didn't know it until midnight.
At 12 o'clock, friends raised a glass together, and in a clanging sound of cups colliding, Hegel was happy like a child. Hegel at that moment is no longer an unattainable great philosopher, he is only one of all worldly happiness.
In 1829, Hegel became rector of the University of Berlin, and his career reached its peak, and he gave an enthusiastic inaugural speech. Unfortunately, after only two years as rector of the University of Berlin, Hegel passed away.
When he turned 60, he already felt that his body was slowly weakening. In 1831, at the age of 61, Hegel felt that time was running out, so he hastened to revise his work, hoping to leave more of a spiritual legacy before his death.
But a cholera hastened the end of Hegel's life. On November 14, Hegel, infected with cholera, left the world in the company of his relatives and friends. This day is a dark day in the history of philosophy in Germany and the whole world, because on the same day another great philosopher, Leibniz, died.
After Hegel's death, the school held a solemn funeral for him. Next to his tomb lay another great philosopher, Fichte. Leaving aside his great philosophical contributions, Hegel's life is more like a narrative essay, without the magnificent ups and downs, without the conflicts of swords and swords, some are just plain and commonplace, but with real happiness.
Philosophy is boring, but there are always people who are willing to exhaust their lives for their own pursuits, and Hegel is one of them. In Hegel's own words, he described his life: "A deep soul, even in pain, is beautiful." ”