Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich

FIRST EDITION, 8vo (195 x 116mm.), contemporary half calf, errata corrected by hand, binding worn, upper cover loose, some browning and spotting,

Dr. med. W. O. Braun, library label on title page; W. Kiehl, ownership inscription in ink on title page

Goedeke V, p.10; Peter Watson, The German Genius, pp.239-245

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Die Phänomenologie des Geistes was Hegel's first major and most widely discussed work and the only part of the System der Wissenschaft to be published. Hegel completed the work in October 1806 in Jena, supposedly the day Napoleon defeated the allied troops of Prussia and Saxony in the famous battle of Jena-Auerstedt. Hegel, being a supporter of the French Revolution, praised Napoleon and remarked that the revolution would now be fulfilled in Germany. At the centre of his thought was the dialectic between man’s self-created social world and his evolving perception and attitudes towards his environment. Since man and his political and social circumstances develop together, this dialectic would eventually lead to a society of increasing self-consciousness, awareness of others and freedom. Hegel’s comprehensive philosophic approach signified a crucial development in the concept of idealism after Kant (see lot 129). In the 1820s, Hegel’s philosophy had become supreme in Germany and exerted a significant influence in Western philosophy, although it divided contemporaries and later thinkers into various factions. As much as he attracted succeeding thinkers such as Marx and Engels by the revolutionary concept of a replacement of the “master-slave” society, he was also much criticised for abetting the development of Communism and Fascism.