The Hegel Project

I finally began "The Philosophy of Hegel," a fairly lengthy paperback containing selections from eight of the major works of G. W. F. Hegel. It's the Modern Library College Edition edited by Carl Friedrich. Right now I've struggled about half-way through. If you know anything about philosophy, you've heard of the reputation of this man, his ideas, and his prose. Undoubtedly, you've heard how difficult, abstruse, and incomprehensible the writing is. I, too, heard this, almost twenty years ago in Philosophy 102 in college.

So why am I subjecting myself to this mental torture?

There's something very appealing to me about getting inside someone's head and knowing, as closely as it is even possible, exactly what that person is thinking. What is he trying to get across, to communicate to me? Am I understanding what he wishes to convey? And once I understand holistically what is being brought to me, how do I evaluate it?

Also, the discipline involved in study, the laser focus needed to completely comprehend a system of thought ... what a valuable gift that would be. I believe it has to be cultivated, and it really can't be taught. It's just acquired by doing. Perhaps it comes naturally to some, but I'd place that figure, at a guess, at less than one percent of one percent of the population.

Why Hegel? Why a vast, complex system of thought that some spend entire lifetimes to attempt to master? Why not someone who's writing is generally thought of as more accessible, such as William James, or even Nietzsche, or maybe some user-friendly translations of Plato?

Sometime in the early nineties I firest read analysis and selections of Hegel, and when I encountered his concept of the evolving historic spirit of philosophy, of Spirit becoming conscious of Itself, chills ran through my body. I had never even considered such a possibility.

So, I wondered, could I get that sense of wonder back, that feeling of being overwhelmed with another's genius, with a more complete and thorough understanding of the man's thought?

Is that even possible, especially for a hopper?