Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Hegel wrote and lectured in German. He did so at the end of a period in which the German language had become, in the hands of Goethe, Schiller, Lessing, etc., the vehicle of a great national literature, comparable to those of France, England and Italy, and in which it was used as never before for the expression of scientific, cultural and philosophical ideas. Hegel did not regard his philosophy as peculiarly German, in the sense that it is valid only for the German language or that it can be appropriately expressed only in German, but he held that it is crucial for the development of a people to possess literary and cultural products in its native tongue and that the structure and vocabulary of German are especially well suited for the expression of certain important truths: German has a ‘speculative spirit’ ( SL , Pref. to 2nd edn). He thus aimed to ‘teach philosophy to speak German’, just as ‘Luther made the Bible speak German, and you [Voss] have done the same for Homer’. In this essay, I first sketch some general features of the German language that need to be borne in mind both in reading Hegel and in using this book. Secondly, I consider some aspects of the development of German as a philosophical language, especially in the eighteenth century. Finally, I examine some of the peculiar features of Hegel's use of German and the general character of his contributions to philosophical ... log in or subscribe to read full text