The Secret of Hegel

The Secret of Hegel: Being the Hegelian System in Origin, Principle, Form and Matter is the full title of an important work on the philosophical system of German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) by James Hutchison Stirling (1820-1909), a Scottish idealist philosopher.

The 1st edition of The Secret of Hegel was published in 2 vols. in 1865 by the London publisher Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green. Vol. 1 contains lxxiv + 465 pages, and Vol. 2 contains viii + 624 pages.

The 2nd, revised, edition of The Secret of Hegel was published in 1 vol. in 1898, and contains xiii + 761 pages. The 2nd, revised, edition (1898) was published simultaneously by 3 different publishers, as follows:

(1) Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd (2) London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co, Ltd. (3) New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons

This work has influenced many British philosophers and helped to create the movement known as British idealism.

Stirling wrote:

On page 84, Stirling gave an even shorter condensation: "Here is the secret of Hegel, or rather a schema to a key to it: Quantity—Time and Space—Empirical Realities."

In Chapter 1 he finds analogies between 16th century English drama and 19th century German idealism and compares Hegel to Shakespeare: "In the ferment of the English Drama, Marlow, Ben Jonson, and others may, even beside Shakespeare, be correctly enough named principals; yet it is the last alone whom we properly term outcome."

In Chapter 11 he expresses some reservations: "In regard to Hegel, satisfaction and dissatisfaction are seldom far from each other, but the latter predominates. If, for a moment, the words light up, and a view be granted, as it were, into the inner mysteries, they presently quench themselves again in the appearance of mere arbitrary classification and artificial nomenclature."

At the end of the book a political intention becomes clearer as he invokes Hegel against the free thinking, “self will” and atomism he understands as a consequence of the Aufklarung (Enlightenment): “Hegel, indeed, has no object but ‘reconciling and neutralising atomism’ once again to restore to us ‘and in the new light of the new thought’ Immortality and Free-will, Christianity and God.”

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