Simon Gros

Link: YouTube

Hegel’s Works from the Gymnasium Years (1785–1788), translated by Simon Gros and narrated by Leda Eliza, continues the presentation of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s earliest surviving writings, following directly after Hegel’s Diary (1785–1787). Written during his final years at the Stuttgart Gymnasium and early days at the Tübingen Seminary, these texts offer a rare view into the intellectual development of a thinker who would later reshape modern philosophy.

Appearing in English for the first time, this volume includes essays, dialogues, academic speeches, and philosophical reflections composed by Hegel between the ages of fifteen and eighteen. Moving beyond private notes, these works reveal early exercises in classical rhetoric, ethical and theological inquiry, and nascent metaphysical speculation.

Highlights include Conversation Between Three Persons, a dialogue on political philosophy; On the Religion of the Greeks and Romans, a theological-historical reflection; and On Some Benefits We Gain from Reading the Classical Greek and Roman Authors, a passionate defense of humanist education. These pieces already exhibit Hegel’s emerging systematic rigor and engagement with classical antiquity.

Each work is accompanied by explanatory footnotes from the translator, offering guidance through historical, literary, and philosophical contexts—shedding light on the Enlightenment, classical, and Christian influences shaping Hegel’s early thought.

This edition is based on G.W.F. Hegel, Frühe Schriften I (1989), edited by Friedhelm Nicolin and Gisela Schüler, Gesammelte Werke, Vol. 1, published by Felix Meiner Verlag in cooperation with the Rheinisch-Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaften, the DFG, the Hegel-Kommission, and the Hegel-Archiv of Ruhr-Universität Bochum.

Together with Hegel’s Diary, this volume completes the record of Hegel’s formative Gymnasium years.