The German philosopher and educator Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel took all knowledge as his domain and made original contributions to the understanding of history, law, logic, art, religion, and philosophy. Living in a time of geniuses and revolutions, Hegel claimed his own work to be not so much a revolution as the consummation of human development.

Hegel was born in Stuttgart on August 27, 1770, the son of an official serving the Duke of Württemberg. Urged by his Pietist father to enter the clergy, he registered in the Tübingen Lutheran seminary in 1788. A fair student, Hegel generally preferred the conviviality of cafés and country walks to scholarly asceticism. His love of wine and company, his passion for the secular writings of Jean Jacques Rousseau, and his interest in practical political matters prevailed over the stern demands of a religious calling. Nevertheless, he studied philosophy...