Hegel about the philosophical need and the philosophical need of his time

On the 250th anniversary of Hegel's birth

Abstract

The author analyzes the social context and main lines of polemics of the intellectual field in which Hegel's first publication appeared. The sociogenetic method of analysis allows us to establish homologies between forces in social and economic space, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, in the space of contemporary to Hegel intellectual life, where the highest achievements of German classical philosophy were born. The formation of the world market and national European states as the institutional protection of the internal loci of commodity production gave rise to specific intellectual tasks, the successful solution of which is substantiated as an essential component of the preservation of the culture that opened the market and its success in the market game. Hegelian philosophy, starting with his first significant publications, appears in this context as the most relevant response to this request, the response which has become an essential moment of the civilizational breakthrough of a lagging culture. That was namely the well-understood by him philosophical need of his time.