Hegel´s diary: the apprehension of ethics - doi: 10.4025/actascihumansoc.v35i1.20273

Abstract

Diaries are kept for different reasons and motives. However, when a philosopher is concerned, it may be asked what his intention was. Were his reasons and intentions the same as those of other people? Diaries, similar to biographies, are about events with the author at the centre. The German philosopher Hegel wrote two diaries: the first was written during his secondary studies in Stuttgart and the other while he taught Philosophy in Berne after he had already written his first essays. In Stuttgart Hegel was only 14 years old and had only a general view of philosophy and its main issues. Could such a diary be of any philosophical interest to understand Hegel’s thought? Does it deserve any philosophical investigation? The importance of the youthful texts is usually reduced to mere curiosity coupled to the desire of tracing signs of future geniality. Current investigation does not expose extraordinary issues which were still to be revealed but rather the formation process that later on would point out the historical determination towards being and thinking.