[Ads-l] Hegel Passage

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Laurence Horn wrote:
> Thanks, Garson—perfect for my purposes, and reassuring to know the
> internet gremlins didn’t make it up (even though maybe Heine did…)
>
> Appalling implications, hunh?  If der König Nichtverstandenwerden had
> wanted to be understood, he would have tried a bit harder to be.

Glad to help. It looks like HathiTrust has the 1834 work by Heinrich
Heine that contains the relevant passage:

Year: 1834
Title: Der Salon von H. Heine.
Main Author: Heine, Heinrich, 1797-1856.
Publisher: Hamburg : Hoffmann und Campe
Quote Page 221
Database: HathiTrust

https://hdl.handle.net/2027/wu.89056744147
https://hdl.handle.net/2027/wu.89056744147?urlappend=%3Bseq=229

>> On Apr 19, 2017, at 4:12 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>>
>> Laurence Horn wrote:
>>> I kind of like another line of Hegel's, which is easy to find on the internet
>>> (attributed to Hegel but without a specific source cited) but which I’d love
>>> to be able to cite with greater confidence. According to legend, Hegel
>>> stated on his deathbed:
>>>
>>> †Only one man ever understood me, and he didn’t understand me."
>>>
>>> I annotate this line with the diacritic † indicating that it’s only well-formed
>>> when uttered on one’s deathbed (and possibly only if the speaker is Hegel).
>>>
>>> Presumably this would not be sourced in Hegel's own work, but maybe in a
>>> memoir of someone present at the occasion?  It would be nice to be able to
>>> confirm that this line (or more exactly its German equivalent) was uttered on
>>> that one occasion.
>>
>> Here is a book in English in 1847 that contains a footnote with a
>> pointer to a book in German in 1834 (citation not yet verified by me).
>> Hegel died in 1831.
>>
>> Year: 1847
>> Title: The Crisis of Popular Education: Its Historical, Internal,
>> Statistical, Financial, and Political Relations.
>>
>> https://books.google.com/books?id=35BeAAAAcAAJ&q=+%22Nur+einer%22#v=snippet&
>>
>> [Begin excerpt - check for typos and missing diacriticals]
>> Sie klagen beständig über Nichtverstandenwerden. Als Hegel auf dem
>> Todtbette lag, sagte er, 'nur einer hat mich verstanden;' aber gleich
>> darauf fügte er verdriesslich hinzu: 'und der hat mich auch nicht
>> verstanden.'
>>
>> Der Salon, von H. Heine: Zweiter Band. S. 220. Hamburg, 1834.
>> [End excerpt]
>>
>> Below is a later citation:
>>
>> Date: October 1894
>> Volume 5, Number 1
>> Periodical: The Monist
>> Section: Book Reviews
>> (Review of "History of Modern Philosophy from Nicholas of Cusa to the
>> Present Time" by Richard Falckenberg)
>> Start Page 120, Quote Page 122
>>
>> [Begin excerpt - double check for typos]
>> The universal complaint of German philosophers, says Heine is das
>> Nichtverstandenwerden, "not being understood," "Nur einer hat mich
>> verstanden," said Hegel plaintively on his deathbed, "Only one man
>> ever understood me," and, as the appalling implications of that
>> confession dawned upon him, he turned and added in his last gasp, "und
>> der hat mich auch nicht verstanden," "and he didn't understand me
>> either!" Yet it would be wrong, from Heine's witticism, to suppose
>> that Hegel's work was all for naught in the history of philosophy.
>> [End excerpt]
>>
>> Garson
>>
>>
>>>> On Apr 19, 2017, at 11:56 AM, Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> According to HathiTrust
>>>>
>>>> Hegel-Jahrbuch 1984-1985 pages 72, 77, and 78 have "difference in kind" and page 80 has "difference in degree."
>>>>
>>>> SG
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ________________________________
>>>> From: American Dialect Society <...> on behalf of Shapiro, Fred <...>
>>>> Sent: Wednesday, April 19, 2017 10:33 AM
>>>> To: ...
>>>> Subject: [ADS-L] Hegel Passage
>>>>
>>>> I have been asked to locate a famous Hegel passage in which he says that difference in kind can sometimes convert to difference in degree.  I can find only vague references that do not cite to a specific passage.  Can anyone help with this?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Fred Shapiro
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.americandialect.org&d=DwIFAw&c=imBPVzF25OnBgGmVOlcsiEgHoG1i6YHLR0Sj_gZ4adc&r=uUVa-8oDL2EzfbuMuowoUadHHcJ7pjul6iFkS5Pd--8&m=Ar6dBUEMSvaRpiNSRdnCplyTQQFyFOFNZ7NcrKmhr8s&s=r7F6O66Ws6gGAbWPVC5MmaCDzWy43Dz5hDBsvxDRVaI&e=>
>>>>
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>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
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>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
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>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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