Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
1770–1831 · German · Early 19th Century
Known for: Invented dialectics, saw Napoleon as 'the World-Soul on horseback,' and nobody's sure if his philosophy is profound or just confusing
Systematic, ambitious, and notoriously difficult to understand. He watched Napoleon ride through Jena and described him as 'the World-Soul on horseback.'
His dialectical method—thesis, antithesis, synthesis—influenced Marx, existentialism, and virtually every subsequent philosophy. A wine lover who called the morning paper 'the realist's morning prayer.'
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