Hegel 9 Weeks Masterclass
"Education is the art of making people ethical” , says the grandmaster Hegel himself. And such will be the idea and ideal of this course as well.
This course offers rational responses to some of the most pressing questions of our time. We will do so by critical examination of Hegel’s key philosophical concepts. The Hegel Masterclass is ideal for anyone interested in German Idealism, metaphysics, dialectics, and absolute knowledge.
Comprised of 7 full individual lectures (video, audio, and text) the course also comes with the option of booking 9 seminars.
There are also additional supplementary videos on philosophical practice, e.g., how to read a philosophical text, how to think in a Hegelian manner. We also provide an introductory video to Hegel's "Phenomenology of Spirit."
Lectures & Texts by Hegel We Will Read
1. The Opening of the System. Encyclopedia
2. Philosophy Begins in Logic. The Science of Logic
3. Finitude & Infinity. The Science of Logic
4. The Free Will which Wills the Free Will. The Philosophy of Right
5. Freedom's Infinite Tension as Organized Human Life. The Philosophy of Right
6. History as Freedom's Own Recollection. Philosophy of History
7. Beauty, the Pure Appearance of the Idea. Aesthetics
Course Experience & Seminar Dates
Content: When you enrol you get exclusive life time access to 10 lectures (10+ hours of audio, video and text).
Live Discussion: When you enrol for the seminar tier or higher you will be invitied to 9 group seminars over Zoom. We will meet on 9 consecutive Sundays beginning 30 April 2023. There will be 7 academic seminars and 1 proseminar at the end where you can present your own talk. During reading week (after seminar 4) we will watch a film together with Hegelian themes. Dr. Filip Niklas leads all seminars.
Community: Everyone enrolled in the seminar tier or higher receives access to the private Halkyon online forum for 1 year.
Seminars: The seminars are your forum to discuss the readings and the lecture materials. Everyone enrolled in the seminars tiers or higher.
Of course, you also have the option to enrol in a tier for self-study only at your own pace. If you are interested in any of the course topics in greater depth, you will be provided with further reading material and guidance for your studies.
Present your work: The final seminar is the proseminar where you can present your talk. We have seen incredibly impressive talks from our students and have published their talks on our YouTube channel as well as some of the students' essays in our online publication.
Your Teacher: Dr. Filip Niklas
Filip Niklas has a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Warwick. His thesis on Hegel’s Critique of Determinism: Justifying Unfreedom as A Moment of Freedom, was supervised by Stephen Houlgate. He has organized the conference series Hegel at Warwick, which saw five installations inviting world-leading Hegel scholars on examining Hegel’s philosophy. Filip was recipient of a DAAD scholarship in 2019 to study at the University of Heidelberg for one year. He has given talks on Hegel, Collingwood and Kant. In 2017-2019, he edited the philosophy journal Plí.
Course Curriculum
What our Students are Saying
Lennart Oberlies
Filip lays the strongest evidence himself for a philosophical life.
On entering dialogues and discussions with us students, he attends with everything he impersonates to the real challenge of teaching: letting you find ways to bring something up and forward, to raise a subject or a problem yourself, to broach a topic which may live latent in you.
This makes his teaching so really unique in my opinion: he addresses and opens the group for conversing, with careful attention to the specificity of every singular voice."
Jack Krasuski, MD
The Halkyon Academy is a community I have become part of and cherish.
The way to learn well is by reading the primary texts and secondary literature, developing a writing praxis to reflect upon and create from what has been learned, having a teacher who himself has thought and written deeply, and participating in a community of peers who taking the learning as seriously as you do.
I am now taking my fourth course with Halkyon and I have loved them all. I am grateful for the courses offered, and I encourage you to join us.”
Taylor S.
"The recorded lectures are a great companion to the primary sources, but the live seminars take their own form relative to how students engage with the ideas. I am grateful for learning how to read philosophy and authentically respond to it in a cohort of interesting, thoughtful peers."
Drew Lockwood
Amazing course! I did private lessons with Filip, worth every penny! This course helped kick off my latest creative project. Highly recommend it to anyone interested in philosophy.
Drew is a professional grappler, business owner & Jiu Jitsu professor
Baris A.
"I have been with Halkyon Academy since its very inception. Learning Philosophy for me means to get back to the original question of what it means to be human and to the necessity of thinking. It is not about the answer but really about the question, the right question. I cannot think of better guides and teachers than the Meisters at Halkyon, guiding me on walks in the dense and historic forest of philosophy. Johannes and Filip have, in their own idiosyncratic styles, helped me to ask appropriate questions, picking up the subtleties of the great texts, and learning to understand. Beyond the guidance, the conversations in the seminars are inspiring. After two years of taking courses, I still see it as the beginning, maybe one is always in the beginning."
"If I can master Hegel, I can master anything!"
Hegel is a notoriously difficult philosopher — a philosopher’s philosopher — but like an old teacher once said, “If I can master Hegel, I can master anything!” A good portion of this course will train your ability to read, understand and communicate Hegel’s ideas, which will in turn hone your intellectual aptitude and make you a better philosopher.