Hegel wrote this classic as an introduction to a series of lectures on the 'philosophy of history' - a novel concept in the early 19th century. With this work, he created the history of philosophy as a scientific study. He reveals philosophical theory as neither an accident nor an artificial construct, but as an exemplar of its age, fashioned by its antecedents and contemporary circumstances, and serving as a model for the future. The author himself appears to have regarded this book a popular introduction to his philosophy as a whole, and it remains the most readable and accessible of all his philosophical writings. Translation by J. Sibree.