Customer Reviews

Hegel in 90 Minutes (Philosophers in 90 Minutes Series)

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Strathern's book simply reproduces the ignorant prejudices against Hegel that have bedevilled Anglo-American philosophy. Who should read this book- anyone who wants to make a few dismissive remarks about Hegel in order to give the appearance of learning at a cocktail party. Who should not read this book- anyone who might want to learn something from Hegel.

It would be ridiculous to recommend this book to anyone, it's about the worst introduction to Hegel one can imagine. The author clearly has no understanding of Hegel and lacks entirely any sympathy for the subject he is writing about. The result is a mucky hodgepodge of all the banal stereotypes and biases that have existed on Hegel in Anglo-American literature. It would be like a German writing a book on Thomas Jefferson and focusing on the fact that he was a slave-owning plantation owner. After encountering this book I questioned the quality of all the books in this "...in 90 Minutes" series, and have since stayed away from them. The Wikipedia entry on Hegel is far superior to this book as a general introduction, and its free.

This work is an amusing cutting down to size of the philosophical system - builder whose castles in the air are more immense if not more illuminating than any other. The irrevent and very funny Strathern here takes solemn old George Frederich Wilhelm to task for not understanding that Hume had already made the philosophical enterprise impossible. He amusingly chronicles the plodding polymath Hegel's conquest of the kingdom of philosophy as he also fumbles forward and upward in his pursuit of academic place. A tragic note is the story of the orphaned Hegel's relationship with his devoted sister who essentially goes mad in the course of a life in which her brother makes a new connection, with his wife. As for Hegel's elaboration of Kant, and provision of thesis- antithesis- synthesis, the famed dialectic method that Marx would turn the world upside down with, Strathern is thin on illustrating and demonstrating it. For devouted Hegelians of which there are still probably two or three in the Western world this book is probably an insult. For most of us, those who do not think that the History came to its climax with the nineteenth - century Prussian nation- state, for those who do not think that Philosophy and Mind came to their ultimate revelation in the writings of Hegel this small work is a sensible and sane brief evaluation .
One more point. Hegel understood that America was the country to watch in the coming century- he aslo understand that Mankind to be understood has to be understood historically- he probably understood a lot else which I, and possibly even Strahern don't. Perhaps Strahern might have done a bit better had he more emphasized what there is of real value in Hegel.

I speak here not to the quality of this individual book, but the Strathern's "In 90 Minutes" series on intellectuals from history.

My Credentials:

Mixed. I'm not a college professor, but I use the Strathern series to accompany my reading of Copleston's nine-volume History of Philosophy, so I have a general grounding in the figures covered before I approach Strathern. I have read about twenty of his works.

Review:

To put it affectionately, Strathern is soaked in personality. His writing is definitely his own, and has a universal flavor that carries from his writings on Plato to Derrida. The man is witty and sarcastic, and always, always, always psychoanalyzes his subjects. This often leads to him to conclude more than is necessary or possible from the lives of famous philosophers.

Strathern shows a definite bias against metaphysics. His writings on the Scholastics and German Idealists are almost painfully unfair.

The set up of each work is simple: open with a biography of the philosopher's early life (usually creating a psychological theme to carry one throughout the book) and then continue writing until the time when the philosopher begins pubilcation. Here, Strathern interludes to descripe the philosopher's basic theories. The biography then continues until death, and is followed with a collection of quotes.



I would not recommend Strathern as an introduction, but as a tolerable and accessible aside. His biographies are extensive and insightful, and much of his series can be found at your (or at least my) local library.

This book gives you the bare basics on Hegel's philosophy, which may be all you need to know. From what this book says, Hegel is obviously a philosopher you will want to read about rather than actually reading his work; you'll see why when I quote him (as quoted in this book).

Meanwhile, as mind itself is not an abstractly simple entity, but a system of processes, wherein it distinguishes itself into moments; but in the very act of distinguishing remains free and detached; and as mind articulates its body as a whole into a variety of functions; and designates one particular part of the body for only one function; so too one can represent to oneself the fluent state of its internal existence (its existence within itself) as something articulated into parts."

Yes!--that thing was meant to be only one complete statement, and it is taken from The Phenomenology of Mind, generally considered Hegel's masterwork. That was not merely how Hegel wrote, but how he thought and how he spoke in his lectures as a university professor. I wrote a "sentence" like that once, in a minor assignment in a political science course, and it greatly contributed to the paper earning an F. Hegel's works are full of such jargon, and therefore are notoriously difficult.

This book may be extremely short, but author Paul Strathern understands Hegel and what the problems with Hegel's philosophy were. Strathern credibly believes Hegel was, at heart, a melancholy mystic and poet with a brilliant but utterly prosaic mind. Strathern notes that Hegel has been compared to Plato for the extreme abstractness of his philosophy, and believes that comparison is fair. The poet theory is shared by other observers of Hegel: a section of the book contains quotes on Hegel by him and some by others, and includes this one by a Giovanni Papini:

There are pages of Hegel which have the same effect in the realm of thought as the sonnets of Mallarme have in the realm of poetry. They are vehicles of evocation and of vague sentimental nuances--nothing more. This does not belittle their value; it may even increase it. Vet verbal narcotics and hypnotic formulations should not be imposed on us as truths.

The practical importance of Hegel's philosophy lies in who it influenced. Karl Marx was history's most important disciple of Hegel. He understood the philosophical method Hegel created--dialectic logic--and used it to invent a new philosophy of history that was completely different from Hegel's philosophy of history.

What a disgrace this is. A ridiculous, biased and totally ineffective overview of one of the most important and influential German thinkers ever. What begins as vaguely humorous remarks about Hegel's philosophy and writing/speaking style, mutates into opinionated babbling that only serves to obscure what the reader actually came here for - to learn more about the development of Hegel and his philosophy. The few facts that do manage to filter through Strathern's annoyingly infantile prejudice, can be gleaned elsewhere online for free in about 15 minutes.

Strathern clearly can't handle Hegel's insistence on spirit and divine ordinance. So, the author's personal dismissal of Hegel's value as a philosopher neuters this work from the outset, rendering it pointless. Strathern is trying to get you to do what he's already done - reject Hegel. This is totally unacceptable. It is one of the most bigoted and blinkered things I've ever come across. A massively wasted opportunity that casts serious doubt on anything this man has written, not to mention the entire series of these shortcut books.

The reason I've bothered to write this is to re-divert the earnest student's attention to other avenues of investigation and learning in their study of Hegel. AVOID THIS at all costs. You will learn nothing of any meaning. It would be a crime to diminish the fascinating work of Hegel by imbibing this sludge.

Strathern is a master at this kind of work, which mixes biography, critical analysis, historical context and humor all in a concise, informative & entertaining package. He lists a time line for the philosopher, his place in world/philosophic history & a selection of works for furthur reading. This series of books by Strathern is a wonderful course in Philosophy 101 without ever having to go to college, all presented in plain, easy to understand English without being bogged down with philosophy's often confusing vernacular.