Lectures on the History of Philosophy

Drawn from the lectures Hegel gave his students in Berlin, this third volume carries his survey of philosophical thought from the close of the ancient world into the Middle Ages and up to the edge of the modern age. Hegel does not treat past thinkers as a museum of dead opinions. For him the history of philosophy is the story of reason slowly coming to know itself, each system a necessary stage in a single unfolding argument. He works through medieval scholasticism, the revival of learning, and the first stirrings of modern thought with his usual ambition. Compiled and published after his death, the lectures remain a landmark attempt to give reason a history. This free PDF and EPUB edition makes the volume widely available.