ABSTRACT
Of the thinkers who developed a comprehensive philosophy of life, Immanuel Kant, Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel were paramount in their influence on the formation of the political mind. Hegel, a Wurttemberger, was in his youth an enthusiastic supporter of the French Revolution and later a great admirer of Napoleon. In many respects Hegel had affinities with Kant, Fichte and Schelling, but Spinoza, Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Gibbon and Ferguson also influenced him strongly. Hegel’s conception of a popular representation is obviously greatly influenced by Napoleonic institutions. Hegel’s philosophical system captivated his disciples, although they could not agree on its interpretation and, moreover, in many particulars it proved untenable. In the political and social fields, the Hallischen Fahrbucher, the organ of the Hegelian Left, was a highly influential paper. The ideas of German liberalism were brilliantly expounded in the Staatslexikon edited by Karl von Rotteck and C. T. Welcker.
