Hamann's Writings

During his time in Jena, Hegel wrote a lengthy review of the collected works of Johann Georg Hamann, engaging deeply with this enigmatic thinker known as the "Magus of the North. The review emerged from a broader intellectual context in which German philosophers were wrestling with questions of language, reason, and faith-themes that dominated Hamann's cryptic writings. Although Hamann had died in 1788, his influence persisted through figures such as Herder and Jacobi, making Hegel's critical engagement with his work particularly timely. The review shows Hegel's evolving philosophical method and his complex relationship to religious thought during a formative period of his intellectual development.

The text reveals Hegel's deep ambivalence toward Hamann's approach. While recognizing Hamann's genius and the power of his insights into the role of language in human understanding, Hegel ultimately criticized what he saw as Hamann's retreat into subjective feeling and religious immediacy. In particular, Hegel took issue with Hamann's rejection of systematic philosophical reflection in favor of an immediate, faith-based grasp of truth that relied heavily on wordplay and biblical imagery. For Hegel, this approach, though poetic and powerful, failed to achieve the kind of conceptual clarity and systematic understanding that philosophy requires. The review thus serves as a key document for understanding how Hegel positioned himself against competing approaches to questions of knowledge, faith, and reason in early nineteenth-century German thought.

This modern translation contains an afterword explaining this work's place in Hegel's larger philosophic system, the relevant historical background, and a timeline of his life and works. The modern language of the translation and scholarly apparatus are designed to orient the modern reader to Hegel's world in his time, and highlight the continued influence of Hegel in our day. Hegel, a generally inaccessible philosopher due to the sheer size and intricacy of his thought, is explained through the interpretation of Tolstoy, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer and Heidegger in this Afterword to make his historically important body of work accessible to the armchair philosopher.