> ...Paul’s recent complaint about the Phenomenology 

> not being fully formed has been made by a number 

> of interpreters in part, I believe, because when reading 

> with a narrow focus it is difficult at times to make sense

> of what Hegel is saying...

> 

>    *  Alan 

Well, Alan, what I said was that Hegel's Phenomenology was insufficiently edited because Hegel ran out of money.   Hegel was a Privatdocent, an "unsalaried lecturer," when he wrote the PhG in 1807. If Hegel's father had not died and left him a little money, he might never have published anything.  Thus, Hegel lacked the money to afford the TIME for EDITING.   

I says that Hegel had his full System in mind in 1807 -- without time to write it all down.  He needed the biggest bang for the buck, and he decided on one, narrow section of his System, namely, the section on Phenomenology of Spirit.   

In one more decade he would publish his Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences in Outline (1817).   This would include his Smaller Logic (ENC LOGIC) as well as his Smaller Phenomenology. 

What was lacking for the PhG was the TIME to EDIT the volume.  All the ideas are there, yet they are often sloppy.   This has been noted for generations.  Hegel's Preface is nearly perfect as it stands -- all by itself -- and it shows how clearly Hegel could write when he had the TIME to EDIT.

The beauty of the Preface of the PhG (1807) is a sort of proof of my claim here.  Hegel could write beautifully -- when he wanted to -- yet only if he had the TIME to EDIT.

The fact that Hegel never finally fleshed out his Encyclopedia is more evidence for my claim..  The Encyclopedia is his FULL SYSTEM.   Everything is included in its place -- in outline form.  It would have taken another decade (if he had lived that long) along with a dozen Apprentices and Editors to finalize the world's first, completed Dialectical Encyclopedia.

It would have revolutionized scholarship.   Instead of the childish Encyclopedia format of the 19th and 20th centuries, where information was arranged by ALPHABET (!) the world would have finally seen a modern Encyclopedia arranged by Dialectical Triads of Philosophical Categories.

The world of 1831 did not understand where Hegel was headed.  Hegel was working on his Proofs of the Existence of God (1831) when he died.  Goethe was dead-set against it.   Yet If not for the cholera outbreak of 1831, Hegel might have gone another 20 years.  The world missed so much -- this genius could not afford the TIME to EDIT his genius in every case.

I'm repeating myself.

--Paul