Singer has given an account of problems which form an important part, but not nearly all, of Hegel's philosophy. There is, understandably, a lot of subject matter not considered. Having heard a lot about Hegel's preference for abstruse language, I was gladdened by how clear his arguments often are, and it might be primarily due to a sensible way of approaching Hegel. Ideas are developed in a linear fashion with few presuppositions about the reader's knowledge of jargon.

To the effect on an outline: we start off with Hegel's idea of history as the development of a certain kind of consciousness, that which deals with freedom, and then examines related doctrines such as Hegel's ideal society, and man's place in it as an individual. Adequate historical context is provided for most relevant discourse, both historical and philosophical (if a distinction can be made). Then, a further relevant problem is considered: what is it that drives the progress of consciousness of freedom.

All of Hegel's philosophy is interconnected, and often times a question that a reader may face a reader while reading, say, Philosophy of Right, will have been answered or at least treated in his other works.

Hegel's coded language is, in a few places, difficult to decipher, and while we can follow the overarching reasoning whilst keeping the goal of his arguments in mind, we may never know what he was trying to profess in these few sections. As impartial as Singer seems to have stayed throughout this book, I would have appreciated examples of practical Hegelian reasoning in domains other than Marxism. Hegelian dialectic is treated, albeit at the very end, after one has carried out Hegelian reasoning. A short section is devoted to the events following Hegel's death.

I think this stands as an adequate introductory guide to Hegel. An objection one can raise is with what often seems to be a softening of Hegel's ideas in order to make them seem inoffensive to our sensibilities. I don't know if the liberties Singer has taken are allowable or do to more to distort Hegel since I haven't read Hegel yet.

This is Peter Singer getting a check, absolute revenue stream philosophy. That being said, it still does a pretty effective job in tantalising the reader to go further into the Hegel hole from which they will never return. ( )

Singer, Peter. Hegel: A Very Short Introduction. 1983. Oxford University Press, 2001.
When it comes to Hegel, philosophers, and I suspect readers in general, are like the proverbial blind men describing an elephant, each getting a non-representative piece of the whole. And at least with the elephant, the whole organism makes sense, which may not be the case when it comes to the totality of Hegel’s thought. Peter Singer does as well as anybody could in trying to make sense of Hegel in under 200 pages. First, he admits he is leaving out a lot of ideas that others would consider important—most notably, Hegel’s work on logic. He covers Hegel’s social philosophy and makes a valiant effort to show how a philosopher admired by Marx and Engel and a defender of the importance of freedom could advocate a society based on a constitutional monarchy. One can also sympathize with Singer’s struggle to find an adequate translation for Hegel’s use of the term Geist. It is never quite clear to me how Hegel’s concepts of mind, phenomenological reality, and dialectics all fit together. Even Singer has his doubts: “No one but Hegel could think of consciousness as portrayed in the Phenomenology as a relatively concrete object.” Amen to that. 4 stars for effort. ( )

I got through this book with an uneasy feeling that I hadn't really understood any of it. ( )

A very nice little tour of the most salient arguments that Hegel had with the transcendental idealism he inherited from Kant and the contemporary romanticism of his compatriot Schelling. Peter Singer's interpretations are plausible and sympathetic in the most part. ( )