ABSTRACT
Born at Stuttgart on the 27th August, 1770, Georg Wilhelm Hegel came of an unpretentions middle-class family. His father was a revenue officer; his mother, from whom it would seem that he inherited his chief abilities, was both well-educated and intelligent, and taught her little son all the Latin that he ever knew, which was quite considerable. During his stay abroad Hegel had been careful not to lose touch with his friends. To Holderlin he owed it that in 1797 he secured a more congenial post: this was with a Frankfurt merchant, Herr Gogol. When in 1799 his father died, Hegel inherited a sum of money which, though exceedingly modest, filled him with hopes of being able to continue his researches without slaving for a living as only a hack-tutor need slave. The Phenomenology was described by Hegel himself as his ‘voyage of discovery’.
