Hegel's
Life
Georg Wilhem Fredrick Hegel was born in August 27, 1770, in southwest Germany, in a town called Stuttgart. His father was a civil servant in the department of finance. He had one sister and a brother. Throughout growing up and studying, he was known as "the old man" because of his strict study habits. However, he was not considered an exceptionally gifted student. Hegel received his Master of Philosophy degree in 1790 and then started to study for his theological exam. In September of 1793, he passed his theological exam, but was too poor to take up parish work so he became a tutor. He hated tutoring in the house of C.F. Tschügg, in Bern, Switzerland. However, the family did have a good library, which he used to advance his learning.
In the early part of 1799, his sister sent him a note saying that their father had just "died quietly and peacefully. His father left him enough money to quit tutoring, and he became a Privatdozent (a lecturer that was not paid) at the University of Jena. In 1805, he was promoted to extraordinary professor. During this time Hegel was working on his masterpiece called, Phenomenology of Spirit.
A friend of Hegel was re-organizing the schools in Bavaria, appointed Hegel rector and philosophy professor at the gymnasium in Nuremberg in the end of 1808. In the summer of 1812, Hegel's wife, Marie von Tucher, gave birth to a baby girl, who died only a few weeks later. However, in June of 1813, Karl, Hegel's son was born, and in September of 1814 his other son Immanuel was born. From 1812 to 1816 Hegel worked on his book, Science of Logic. In 1818, Kant accepted the second offer from the University of Berlin, working in the philosophy chair. Hegel traveled and lectured at the University of Berlin, until close to his death on November 14, 1831.
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