In 1807, Hegel published his first work, Ph?nomenologiedes Geistes (Phenomenology of Spirit). The Phenomenology of Spirit is a great conceptual journey that takes us from the most basic concept of human consciousness to the most all-encompassing and complex concept of human consciousness.

Its purpose is to arrive at the truth – the "absolute" truth – but the "absolute" does not mean "final and complete", and the "truth" does not mean the "fact".

Hegel's quest for philosophical truth is an all-encompassing view, and the proud term "absolute" is actually a humble attitude in macrophilosophy: the realization that we are all a small part of the macroscopic context.

The individual's contribution to knowledge and truth is by no means decisive, but, on the contrary, always partial, "indirect" and one-sided.

The central concern of The Phenomenology of Spirit is the nature of spirit, the idea of the cosmic soul that encompasses all human beings and nature.

The conclusion of the Phenomenology of Spirit lies in the all-encompassing spirit, in which not all disagreements have been resolved, all disputes have been resolved, and all questions have been answered, but no matter how serious the disagreements, how intense the disputes, and how difficult the questions may be, they are all united in this spirit.

Napoleon aspires to unify the world, but it was Hegel who really unified the world—theoretically, of course. Nevertheless, the all-encompassing concept of consciousness is the first step towards the unity of the real world.

Other works published during Hegel's lifetime include The Complete Book of Philosophy, Logic, and Principles of the Philosophy of Law.

Other works on the philosophy of history, philosophy of religion, aesthetics, and the history of philosophy were written after his death. It is compiled from the notes taken by students during his lectures that year.

Hegel's writings are renowned for their depth and breadth. He built a vast system for understanding the history of philosophy and the world itself in which we live.

In Hegel, this world is often seen as "a historical march in which each successive movement emerges to resolve the contradictions of the previous movement." 」

For example, he argues that the French Revolution was the first time in human history that true freedom was introduced into Western society. But precisely because it is absolutely first, it is also absolutely radical: after the revolution has eliminated its opposite, the violent upsurge that the revolution evokes cannot be subdued by itself, and the end result is that the revolution with no way out ends in the end reaping its own fruits – the hard-won freedom self-destructs itself by a brutal reign of terror.

History, however, always moves forward in self-learning of mistakes: it is this experience, and only after it. A group of free citizens capable of exercising the duties of a rational government. Only then can a constitutional government emerge that can realize the revolutionary ideals of freedom and equality.

In the preface to The Philosophy of History, Hegel states: "Philosophy shows that consciousness exists on its infinite number of concepts, that is. Consciousness exists in a free, infinite number of forms. The abstract introspective form of opposition is only a reflection of it.

Consciousness is free, independent, and individual. It's just spiritual. 」

Therefore, "consciousness" as a separate concept is composed of two parts, both of which have an infinite number of "forms". One part is principled, and the other part is a concrete reflection of each historical event.

So he said, "There are two aspects to consciousness in the ordinary sense, on the one hand, the idea of things as a whole, and on the other hand, the abstract concept of the concrete reaction of things. 」

At the same time, he said, "Everybody has a different sense of self, reacts differently to things, and has a deviation from principled consciousness, but for a normal person, there is a limit to this deviation, and this limit depends on his normal state, and it depends on his degree of respect for God.

To understand the extent of this concept, it belongs to the realm of metaphysics. 」

So, although Hegel's language is difficult to understand, he argues that metaphysics must study the mechanism by which propositions and counterpropositions relate to each event, and therefore must compare the examples and their archetypes in each historical event to understand their similarities and differences.

Hegel had an organized and teleological conception of human society, and his writings were rich and difficult to understand, which is very confusing to modern readers.

Not only that, but his ideas are contrary to the existentialist philosophy and the concept of individual rights that are prevalent in modern intellectual circles.

Almost any school of thought affirmed or criticized his doctrine.

Historians divide those influenced by Hegel into two opposing camps, the Hegelian Right and the Left.

Hegel's right was represented by his students at the Humboldt University in Berlin, who embraced the orthodox religious ideas of the Gospel and the political conservatism of the post-Napoleonic era.

The Hegelian Left, sometimes called the "Young Hegelians", inherited the revolutionary elements of Hegel's doctrine and advocated atheism in religion and liberal democracy in politics, including Ludwig, Andres, Feuerbach, and the young Marx and Engels.

In the 1830s and 1840s, these young Hegelian followers often met and debated at the Schiebel Bar in Berlin, and the atmosphere created a great influence on thinkers for the next 150 years, forming the basic ideas of atheism, humanism, communism, anarchism, and egoism.

But almost none of the Hegelian Left declared themselves followers of Hegel, and several openly criticized Hegel's philosophy, but this historical distinction is still used in modern academic philosophy, and the Hegelian Left criticism of Hegel has led to an entirely new field of literature about Hegel and Hegel's theory.

For school students today, Hegel's dialectics is divided into three phases, the "main topic" (e.g., the Revolution in French history), the "anti-topic" (the period of terror that followed the Revolution), and the "right topic" (the constitutional guarantee of free citizens).

This division was not proposed by Hegel himself, but was first found in Fichte's anatographical description of the connection between the individual and the whole.

Hegelian scholars did not realize that such a syllogism would obscure the true thesis of Hegel's theory, even though Hegel once said:

"Two fundamental elements are to be taken into account: first, that free will is an absolute and ultimate end; (pros and reverses), but instead of using the term "co-topic", he uses "whole".

"In this way we understand the state of morality and the realization of freedom as a whole, and the subjective integration of these two elements thereafter. 」

Hegel used this dialectic system to explain the history of philosophy, science, art, politics, and religion, but modern critics have pointed out that Hegel often embellishes the truth of history to fit his dialectical model.

Karl Popper, in his Open Society and Its Enemies, argues that the Hegelian system embellishes the reign of Wilhelm III, and that he considers Prussia in the 1830s to be the ideal society.

Herbert Marcuse, in his Reason and Revolution: The Rise of Hegel and Social Theory, criticized Hegel as an apologists for state power and paved the way for the rise of totalitarianism in the 20th century.

In fact, Hegel did not defend these forms of power, but only argued that what exists is reasonable, and because these powers exist, they are also reasonable.

Arthur and Schopenhauer despised Hegel's interpretation of history as obscurantist and "pseudo-philosophies," a view that many philosophers of the English school followed.

In the 20th century, Hegel's philosophy began to revivenation, mainly because of several reasons, one is the discovery that Hegel's philosophy is the source of Marxist philosophy, and because Hegel's view of history began to revivenation, and then the importance of Hegel's dialectic has been widely recognized, and the most important work that brought Hegel's theory back to Marx's classics is George and Lukacs's "History and Class Consciousness", which has set off a wave of re-understanding and evaluation of Hegel's works, and Hegel's revival has also aroused interest in Hegel's early works.

Modern American philosophers are also clearly influenced by Hegel. (To be continued......)