"Lectures on the Proofs of the Existence of God" by G. W. F. Hegel (translated by Ebenezer Brown Speirs). Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.
A major figure in German Idealism, early 19th century philosopher G. W. F. Hegel developed a comprehensive philosophical framework, referred to as «Absolute Idealism» which sought to describe the relation between mind and nature. Underpinning the framework of this philosophy is the assertion that in order for the human consciousness to understand the world at all there must be in some sense an identity of thought and being. «Hegel's Logic» or part one of the «Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences» is an abbreviation of Hegel's earlier «Science of Logic». It is a work in which Hegel presents the categories of thought as they are in themselves; they are the minimal conditions for thinking anything at all, the conceptions that run in the background of all our thinking. In Hegel's philosophy no amount of observing will bring us to the essence of things, instead it is the articulation of the «Geist», or spirit, in other words, the activity of thinking, that gives definition to the nature of existence. The analysis of Hegel's philosophy often results in contradictory interpretations which is illustrative of the complexity of his works as he wrote with the assumption that the reader was well versed in the works of philosophy that came before. Hegel wrote the «Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences» with the intention of it being a more accessible entry point to his philosophy.
Remarkable for its breadth and profundity, this work combines aspects of psychology, logic, moral philosophy, and history to form a comprehensive view that encompasses all forms of civilization. Its three divisions consist of the subjective mind, the objective mind, and the absolute mind. A wide-ranging survey of the evolution of consciousness.
One of the central problems in the history of moral and political philosophy since antiquity has been to explain how human society and its civil institutions came into being. In attempting to solve this problem philosophers developed the idea of natural law, which for many centuries was used to describe the system of fundamental, rational principles presumed universally to govern human behavior in society. By the eighteenth century the doctrine of natural law had engendered the related doctrine of natural rights, which gained reinforcement most famously in the American and French revolutions. According to this view, human society arose through the association of individuals who might have chosen to live alone in scattered isolation and who, in coming together, were regarded as entering into a social contract. In this important early essay, first published in English in this definitive translation in 1975 and now returned to print, Hegel utterly rejects the notion that society is purposely formed by voluntary association. Indeed, he goes further than this, asserting in effect that the laws brought about in various countries in response to force, accident, and deliberation are far more fundamental than any law of nature supposed to be valid always and everywhere. In expounding his view Hegel not only dispenses with the empiricist explanations of Hobbes, Hume, and others but also, at the heart of this work, offers an extended critique of the so-called formalist positions of Kant and Fichte.